KAUKAUNA (NBC 26) — Jordan McCabe provided the Kaukauna community many special nights with his play on the basketball court.
On Tuesday night, the school returned the favor.
"To see that's how I'm viewed to some people in the community is really, really, really moving," said the former Kaukauna star who went on to play college ball at West Virginia and then UNLV.
McCabe helped the Ghosts bring home two state titles and also won the Mr. Basketball award. For his stellar play, they held a ceremony for the now UWGB assistant coach.
The school gave him a picture of his game-winning layup in the state title game against Milwaukee Washington in 2018 and then announced that no one would ever wear his jersey number 5 again after this year. It's currently being worn by junior forward Andrew Jensen.
"It's very special to know that my number will be retired here," McCabe said. "Definitely not a goal you write down when you're a little kid. My goals that I did write down were win state championships and things of that nature. I guess, this is kind of a side effect of that. Winning allows me to have my number in the rafters. Very cool, very appreciative they would do that."
Even though they retired his number, he had a message for anyone coming up in the program.
"Any kid who wants to wear 5 at Kaukauna is still good with me," he said with a smile.
To end his speech in the ceremony that occurred before the Ghosts' game against Kimberly, he told the team to go get a win and they did just that. Kaukauna beat Kimberly 82-63.
