Kelsey Plum receives honor from the University of Washington

The University of Washington announced that they would be honoring Las Vegas Aces star Kelsey Plum. The Huskies will be retiring Plum’s #10 jersey on January 18th at Alaska Airlines Arena at Hec Edmundson Pavilion.

Plum will be the first women’s basketball player in the program’s history to have her jersey retired and the 6th player overall to have their jersey retired in the school’s history.

“Kelsey is one of the great basketball players of all time, and she’s a UW legend,” said Washington Director of Athletics Pat Chun. “An Olympic gold medalist and WNBA champion, Kelsey has inspired fans worldwide and countless young basketball players and student-athletes. We’re so fortunate to have Kelsey in the Husky family and honored to celebrate her as one of the greatest to wear the Purple and Gold. We look forward to January and raising that banner with her name on it to the rafters where it belongs.”

Plum was humbled by the honor.

“I’m forever proud to be a Husky and UW is a special place that fundamentally shaped me both as a basketball player and as a person,” Plum said. “It means the world to me to receive this honor and to celebrate it with my family, friends and alumni. It will be a great feeling to look up at the rafters and see my jersey alongside those that I’ve admired for so long.”

Plum’s jersey retirement celebration is part of UW’s launch of its Forever 10 celebration – in honoring of Plum’s profound impact on Huskie Athletics and women’s basketball.  On Saturday, Nov. 2,  during the homecoming football game, Plum will be in attendance and recognized during a special moment between the first and second quarter at the Greatest Setting College Football.

Plum played with the Huskies from 2013-2017 and left the school as the NCAA’s  NCAA scoring leader with 3,527 points – stood until 2024 when it was broken by Caitlin Clark and broke the 33-year-old NCAA career free throw record (912). She also broke the single-season NCAA scoring record with 1,109 points in 2016-17 (stood until the end of the 2023-24 season).

Plum became UW’s all-time three-point leader, the Pac-12’s all-time single-season scoring leader, and set the Pac-12 single-game scoring record (57) in an instantly legendary game where she broke Jackie Stiles’s all-time career points record.

She also was named the Pac-12’s Player of the Year in 2017.  Plum is the second player from the team whose jersey will be retired by their former school this upcoming season. South Carolina announced last week that will be retiring A’ja Wilson’s jersey next February.