The other day, we got to talk about Zaide Lowery being the first Marquette men’s basketball player to take advantage of the new-ish NCAA uniform rules as he switches to #7 for the 2024-25 season. Since then, the team has announced what uniform numbers that the three incoming freshmen will be wearing.
Let’s dive into the history attached to what we’ll see from those guys!
Joshua Clark — #8
Marquette’s newest signee is the second Golden Eagles player to decide to take advantage of the NCAA’s rule change about uniform numbers last summer. However, since the plan is for Clark to redshirt in the 2024-25 season, Zaide Lowery will definitely become the first player to step onto a court with a 6, 7, 8, or 9 on their uniform.
Like Lowery, while Clark is the first to take advantage of the new uniform rules and select #8, he is not the first Marquette player to ever wear the number. It has only been worn once before, when William Chandler, head coach Bill Chandler’s son, wore it in the early 1940s. The elder Chandler is still the longest serving Marquette head coach, guiding the team for 21 seasons and his 193 wins are second only to Al McGuire in program history. The younger Chandler was team captain for three seasons and named a Pic Magazine All-American in 1944. “Be an All-American” is a high bar to set for Clark to pass as the best #8 in program history, but that’s what we’re looking at, even if I can’t actually tell you what Pic Magazine was at the time.
Damarius Owens — #10
Zaide Lowery has turned his quest to be the best #10 in program history over to Damarius Owens, and, well, it’s probably going to be just as hard for Owens to get there. That’s what happens when Tony Miller, the program’s all time assists leader, wore it for his whole career. A guy by the name of Travis Diener had it for a year before switching to his more famous #34. The number has been in use pretty consistently since 1973, with a year here and a year there out of service. Richard Collentine is the first Marquette player to ever wear it back in 1941, and there was a gap from 1945 to 1973 where no one wore it.
Royce Parham — #13
Well, obviously, Royce Parham has some instantly big shoes to fill as #13 on the court for Marquette, as Oso Ighodaro just wrapped up a wonderful four year career for the Golden Eagles wearing that number.
Historically speaking, #13 is a weird number for Marquette. It goes in and out of fashion, so to speak. Robert Pierce wore it first back in 1942, and he kept it for a few seasons…… and then 40 years went by without anyone wearing it. Walter Dowling brought it back in 1984, and it stayed pretty popular through 1997, including a very successful run by Roney Eford from 1993 to 1995. Then it disappeared again before Vander Blue swapped his #2 for #13 for one season in 2012-13. Ighodaro was the first guy since Eford to wear it for more than one season, as Blue left after one year with it, Matt Carlino was a grad transfer when he wore it, and Henry Ellenson was a one-and-done to the NBA Draft.
I think we have to say that Eford is the best MU player to wear #13 as he’s still #19th all time in scoring after finishing his career at #10. That’s a pretty steep hill for Parham to climb, but shooting at third best to ever wear #13 seems like a reasonable task for him during his time in Milwaukee.