List of retired numbers

[rhickok1109]

The NFL strongly discourages retiring numbers, though there's no absolute prohibition. The apparent reason is that, with the growth of rosters, there's a danger of running out of numbers avaiable for some positions (which does, in fact, happen to some teams during the pre-season).

[LJP]

Chronologically, the Bears have retired the following jersey numbers:-

30-Nov-1949: Nagurski (#3), Hewitt (#56) & Grange (#77)
07-Jan-1954: Luckman (#42)
10-Jan-1988: Payton (#34)
31-Oct-1994: Sayers (#40) & Butkus (#51)
09-Dec-2013: Ditka (#89)

What I am trying to figure out is when exactly the other jersey numbers were retired (a year will do)?

George McAfee (#5): last used in 1951 (Billy Stone) and retired by 1963.
Bulldog Turner (#66):- last used in 1952 and retired by 1963.
Willie Galimore (#28):- last used in 1963 and retired by 1970.
Brian Piccolo (#41):- last used in 1969 and retired by 1971.
Bill George (#61):- last used in 1973 (Glen Holloway) and retired by 1975.
George Halas (#7):- last used in 1984 (Bob Avellini) and retired some time after 1987.

Any ideas?

Edit: narrowed Halas down to 1987 or 1988, probably the latter. His #7 is not on the list of retired numbers in the 1987 Bears Media Guide, but is in the 1988 edition. It's not on the list in the 1988 Record & Fact Book, but that was probably published before the Media Guide, or just hadn't been updated in time for printing. I'm assuming the others are going to be closer to the time that they were last used. The list of retired numbers only appeared every so often in older Bears Media Guides.

[JohnTurney]

I was noticing a picture of Rams tackle John Williams recently when it suddenly struck me, "They hadn't retired Deacon Jones's number at that point?"

When I looked it up, it took the Rams until 2009 to retire Deacon's number. Anyone know why it took so long?

For years the rams had a rule that only career Rams (played only with Rams) could be retired. But Dickerson, Deacon and others caused Rams to change policy