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Provo • The jersey numbers of former BYU basketball greats Mel Hutchins (14) and Roland Minson (11) will be retired during the Cougars' Feb. 16 game against Portland at the Marriott Center, the school announced Monday evening.
Hutchins and Minson were teammates and captains on the 1951 BYU team that won the NIT National Championship and will join Kresimir Cosic (11) and Danny Ainge (22) as the only former Cougars to have their basketball jerseys retired.
BYU policy requires a 15-year waiting period to have one jersey's retired, one of the reasons why 2011 consensus national player of the year Jimmer Fredette's No. 32 won't be retired in the near future.
Current and future players cannot wear numbers that have been retired.
"It is a real privilege to retire the jerseys of Mell Hutchins and Roland Minson, two of the greatest basketball players in BYU history," said BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe. "… It is a fitting tribute that we are able to retire their jerseys in the same ceremony."
Hutchins led BYU to three Skyline Conference titles (1948, 1950 and 1951) and was a first-team All-American in 1951 by Look Magazine, Converse, Helms and The Sporting News. He was taken second in the 1951 NBA Draft, but recognized as the No. 1 overall pick when Gene Melchiore was given a lifetime ban from playing in the NBA.
Minson, known as "The Cat" during his tenure at BYU, helped lead the Cougars to three-straight 20-win seasons and back-to-back league championships in 1950 and 1951, in addition to the 1951 national championship. He was named MVP of the 1951 NIT.
Minson held the BYU career scoring record, 1,407 points, for 22 years until it was broken by Cosic in 1973. He set the school single-season scoring record with 619 points, a record that stood for 27 years until Ainge broke it in 1978.
BYU also will retire the No. 22 jersey worn by All-American women's player Jackie Beene McBride. The ceremony will take place at halftime of the Cougars' final home game of the year vs. Gonzaga on Feb. 23. The 6-foot guard/forward played at BYU from 1978-1982.
It is only the second time in BYU women's basketball history that a jersey has been retired. In 2004 the No. 44 jersey worn by Tina Gunn Robison was retired.