The No. 10 will take its rightful place in the rafters of Gampel Pavilion in Storrs, Conn., on Sunday with the retirement of the number of UConn great Sue Bird.

The number-retirement ceremony will take place approximately 30 minutes before No. 1 UConn and DePaul tip off at 1 p.m. It will be streamed live on the UConn Huskies’ YouTube page as well as on the school’s women’s basketball Facebook and X pages.

Despite the success of the UConn program – 12 national championships – the numbers of just two women have been retired. Bird will share the honors with Rebecca Lobo (No. 50) and Swin Cash (No. 32).

A requirement for number retirement at UConn is enshrinement in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. Bird was inducted in September, entering the Hall the same day as another former Huskies great, Maya Moore.

UConn has not set a date for a ceremony for Moore.

Diana Taurasi, who retired from the WNBA following the 2024 season, is sure to be elected to the Hall as soon as she is eligible, meaning immortality at Gampel Pavilion would follow.

The Sue Bird file

Bird, now 45, played for head coach Geno Auriemma at UConn from 1998-2002. She was part of a team that won the Big East Conference championship each of those four years, as well as national titles in 2000 and ’02. The team’s record in games she played was 136-9 (93.7%).

Her trophy case is stuffed with awards from her UConn days. She is a three-time winner of the Nancy Lieberman Award as the nation's top point guard. Her other honors include the 2002 Naismith Player of the Year, the AP National Player of the Year and USBWA National Player of the Year.

The Seattle Storm selected Bird No. 1 in the 2002 WNBA Draft, and she spent her entire career in the Pacific Northwest. She made 13 WNBA All-Star teams and was named first-team All-WNBA five times. She is the WNBA's all-time assist leader with 3,234.

With Bird, the Storm won four WNBA championships -- 2004, '10, '18 and ’20) – and she added five consecutive Olympic gold medals, beginning in Athens in 2004 and running through the 2020 Tokyo Games.

In May, USA Basketball named Bird the first managing director of the U.S. women’s national team.

Related Stories

HUGE WIN: No. 1 Huskies women are unstoppable in Big East opener at Xavier. CLICK HERE.

GOODBYE AND HELLO: Former UConn football coach Jim Mora says goodbye to Huskies team, gets a warm welcome at Colorado State.  CLICK HERE: 

BUECKERS to OLYMPICS? UConn alum Paige Bueckers is now on the journey to her first Olympic Games. CLICK HERE: 

Join the Conversation

Remember to join our UCONN on ROUNDTABLE community, which is FREE! You can post your own thoughts, in text or video form, and you can engage with our Roundtable staff, as well as other Huskies fans. If prompted to download the Roundtable APP, that's free too!