Following the 1949 season, the N Club voted to retire jersey No. 60 in honor of Tom "Train Wreck" Novak's stellar career with the Cornhuskers. Novak, the first Nebraska player to earn this honor, had been a four-time All-Big Seven choice and a 1949 All-American.

Novak was the only NU player to have the distinction of a retired number, until Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Rodgers earned the distinction. Rodgers allowed his number to return to circulation when his son, Terry, joined the Huskers, but it has since returning to permanently retired status.

In 2004, College and Pro Football Hall of Famer Bob Brown's No. 64 joined Novak's hallowed No. 60 and Rodgers' No. 20, among the permanently retired numbers at Nebraska. Brown, whose jersey retirement ceremony occurred during NU's game with Colorado in 2004, became the 16th player in Husker history to have his jersey retired.

All-American Ndamukong Suh - one of the most decorated defensive players in college football history - joined Nebraska's list of retired jerseys in 2010. Suh won the Outland, Lombardi, Nagurski and Bednarik award in 2009, while becoming the first defensive player in history to win the Associated Press National Player-of-the-Year award.

During the 2017 season opener against Arkansa State the Nebraska Athletic Department posthumously honored eight members of the College Football Hall of Fame, including Guy Chamberlin, Ed Weir, Clarence Swanson, George Sauer, Sam Francis, Forrest Behm, Bobby Reynolds and Wayne Meylan.

The history rich Nebraska football program currenlty has a total of 25 Legends honored with their jersey retired.

All major national award winners at Nebraska automatically have their jerseys retired, but their numbers will still be available to active Huskers.

Year	Jersey	Player	Major Award
1949	No. 60	Tom Novak	Four-Time All-Conference
1972	No. 20	Johnny Rodgers	1972 Heisman/Walter Camp
1972	No. 79	Rich Glover	1972 Outland/Lombardi
1982	No. 50	Dave Rimington	1981, 1982 Lombardi/1982 Outland
1983	No. 30	Mike Rozier	1983 Heisman/Maxwell/Walter Camp
1983	No. 71	Dean Steinkuhler	1983 Outland/Lombardi
1994	No. 75	Larry Jacobson	1971 Outland
1994	No. 75	Will Shields	1992 Outland
1994	No. 34	Trev Alberts	1993 Butkus
1995	No. 74	Zach Wiegert	1994 Outland
1996	No. 15	Tommie Frazier	1995 Johnny Unitas
1998	No. 67	Aaron Taylor	1997 Outland
1998	No. 98	Grant Wistrom	1997 Lombardi
2002	No. 54	Dominic Raiola	2000 Rimington
2002	No. 7	Eric Crouch	2001 Heisman/Walter Camp
2004	No. 64	Bob Brown	College and Pro Football Hall of Fame
2010	No. 93	Ndamukong Suh	Outland/Lombardi,Nagurski/Bednarik
2017	No. 33	Forrest Behm	College Football Hall of Fame
2017		Guy Chamberlin	College Football Hall of Fame
2017	No. 38	Sam Francis	College Football Hall of Fame
2017	No. 66	Wayne Meylan	College Football Hall of Fame
2017	No. 12	Bobby Reynolds	College Football Hall of Fame
2017	No. 25	George Sauer	College Football Hall of Fame
2017	No. 1	Clarence Swanson	College Football Hall of Fame
2017	No. 35	Ed Weir	College Football Hall of Fame