KAUKAUNA (NBC 26) – Jordan McCabe provided the Kaukauna community with many special nights with his play on the basketball court.
On Tuesday evening, the school returned the favor.
“To see some members of the community see me that way is really, really touching,” said the former Kaukauna star, who later played college soccer at West Virginia and then at UNLV.
McCabe helped the Ghosts win two state titles and also won the Mr. Basketball. In recognition of his outstanding play, a ceremony was held in honor of the current UWGB assistant coach.
The school gave him a photo of his winning setup in the 2018 state title game against Milwaukee Washington, then announced that no one would ever wear his No. 5 jersey after that year. It is currently worn by junior forward Andrew Jensen .
“It’s something special to know that my number is going to be retired here,” McCabe said. “It’s definitely not a goal you write down when you’re a little kid. My goals that I wrote down were to win state championships and stuff like that. I think that’s kind of a side effect of it. Winning allows me to have my number in the rafters. Very cool, very grateful they would do that.
Even though they retired his number, he had a message for everyone who would be on the show.
“Any kid who wants to wear a 5 in Kaukauna is still good to me,” he said with a smile.
To end his speech during the ceremony that took place before the Ghosts’ game against Kimberly, he told the team to go for the win, and that’s exactly what they did. Kaukauna defeated Kimberly 82-63.
