Utah will retire the jersey number of Ty Jordan and Aaron Lowe, best friends and teammates who died within nine months of each other, and honor their legacies in a ceremony during Saturday’s game against UCLA.
They will be the first players in program history to have their number — No. 22 — retired.
Jordan wore the number during his freshman season for the Utes in 2020, when he was named the Pac-12 Offensive Freshman of the Year. He died on Christmas Day, the result of an accidental self-inflicted gunshot.
Lowe switched his number from No. 2 to No. 22 to honor his friend and was the recipient of the first Ty Jordan Memorial Scholarship in August. The two were also teammates at West Mesquite High in Texas.
Lowe was killed on Sept. 26 at a house party in Salt Lake City. A 22-year-old man, Buk M. Buk, was arrested and charged with aggravated murder, attempted murder and felony discharge of a firearm.
At a memorial service on Oct. 11, Lowe was laid in his Utes uniform in an open casket. A large Utah U was shown behind him with his uniform number. A scholarship has also been created in his memory.