Washington is set to bestow a unique honor to one of its best athletes in school history. The school will retire Kelsey Plum’s jersey on Jan. 18 during the team’s matchup against the Purdue Boilermakers, the school announced on Friday. Plum, who wore No. 10 throughout her college career, will be the first women’s basketball player in school history to earn this honor.
“Kelsey is one of the great basketball players of all time, and she’s a UW legend,” Washington AD Pat Chun said in a press release. “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 starred for Washington from 2013-17. As a sophomore, she led the team to its first NCAA Tournament appearance in nearly a decade, then followed it up by bringing them to the Final Four in 2016 — still the only time the program has ever reached that stage. Another Sweet 16 appearance followed in her senior season. Since she graduated, the Huskies haven’t been back to the Big Dance.
Along the way, Plum racked up all sorts of honors and awards, including:
- 1x Pac-12 Freshman of the Year
- 1x Pac-12 Player of the Year
- 4x All-Pac-12 performer
- 2x AP All-American
- 1x Naismith Player of the Year
During her senior season, Plum scored 1,109 points to set the NCAA women’s basketball single-season record, and finished her career with 3,527 points, which was the NCAA women’s basketball all-time record. Both of those marks stood until the 2023-24 season, when Caitlin Clark surpassed them.
“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.”
After graduating from Washington, Plum entered the 2017 WNBA Draft and was selected No. 1 overall by the then-San Antonio Stars (now Las Vegas Aces). She has spent her entire career with the franchise and was a key figure in their back-to-back titles in 2022 and 2023.
