There’s a certain poetry to Aaron Donald returning to Pittsburgh on a Saturday when the Panthers needed him most. No. 22 Pitt hosted No. 9 Notre Dame in a ranked matchup. And the university chose halftime to immortalize Donald’s No. 97 jersey alongside the program’s most legendary names, such as Tony Dorsett, Dan Marino, Mike Ditka, and now, the kid from Penn Hills who rewrote what it means to dominate from the defensive tackle position.

Donald served as ESPN College GameDay’s celebrity guest picker that morning. He threw out a playful dig at Notre Dame while reminiscing about Pitt’s 2013 win over the Irish, and then watched his number get hung in the rafters at Acrisure Stadium. For a guy who grew up 14 miles from campus and dreamed of wearing that blue and gold, it doesn’t get much better than this.​

The backstory of how Donald even became a Panther makes the honor that much sweeter. At 6 feet tall and 260 pounds coming out of Penn Hills High School in 2009, Donald was considered undersized and risky. He was a three-star recruit ranked 353rd nationally who committed to Pitt early while bigger programs like Penn State and Notre Dame looked elsewhere. 

His offer list read like a mid-major wishlist: Pitt, Rutgers, Akron, and Toledo, where his brother Archie played. Pitt assistant Paul Gattuso stumbled onto Donald almost by accident while scouting another player at a Penn Hills game during Donald’s junior year. And what he saw stopped him in his tracks. 

Within two days, head coach Dave Wannstedt approved a scholarship after reviewing the film, with Gattuso telling anyone who’d listen that this undersized kid was wreaking havoc on offensive lines in ways he’d never seen. Donald’s high school coach, Terry Gibson, laughs about it now. “It’s challenging to approach your head coach and say, ‘I’ve got a 6-foot defensive lineman that I’m excited about,'” he told The Athletic years later.​

What Donald did once he got to Pitt turned him into one of the most decorated defensive players in college football history. After a quiet freshman season, he exploded as a sophomore in 2011 with 47 tackles, 16 tackles for loss, and 11 sacks while earning second-team All-Big East honors. 

To share the news about his jersey retirement, Director of Athletics Allen Greene visited Donald at his home. And to say the very least, the emotions were overflowing. “It’s hard to put into words what it means to have my jersey retired,” Donald said in a statement. “Born and raised in Pittsburgh, I’m grateful to the University of Pittsburgh for taking a chance on me when so many others wouldn’t. I accomplished more in my career than I ever dreamed of, and for that I’m truly blessed. To soon see my number hanging alongside other Pitt greats is an honor beyond measure. I will always love this University. Hail to Pitt!”

Donald becomes the 11th Pitt player to receive the honor. And Greene put it best when he said Donald “embodies the very best of what it means to be a Pitt Panther.” For a kid who was too small, too short, and too overlooked to get a sniff from the blue bloods, hanging that No. 97 in the rafters feels like the ultimate validation. That’s not just of what he became, but of the hometown school that believed in him when nobody else would.​

The Panther nation speaks

The reaction from Pitt fans was swift, emotional, and unanimous. “Retiring 97 for Aaron Donald was never a question of ‘if,’ but ‘when’ Pitt would get around to it,” one fan wrote, showing the sentiment that filled social media as the ceremony unfolded. And they’re right. From the moment Donald swept every major defensive award as a senior in 2013, the only question was how long it would take for the university to make it official. 

What stands out in the fan reactions is the certainty. The absolute conviction that Donald exists in a tier by himself. “Aaron Donald is still the best player I’ve ever seen at Pitt. Nobody has come close to his talent level,” one longtime fan declared. It’s hard to argue when you look at the resume. The debate about Pitt’s greatest player usually centers on Marino or Dorsett, with Hugh Green and Larry Fitzgerald in the mix. But Donald’s decade-plus of NFL dominance has swung the conversation in his direction. As one user put it, “Aaron Donald changed the game, and history agrees.”​

The social media reactions were about legacy, while someone else simply called him “the greatest.” Yet another user exclaimed, “#97 is forever retired at Pitt. Aaron Donald, forever immortalized in the rafters at Acrisure Stadium.” The number carries weight because everyone who watched him knows how close this was to not happening. 

That’s why the jersey retirement feels less like an honor bestowed and more like a long-overdue acknowledgment of what everyone in Pittsburgh has known for years: 97 was always going up there. It was just a matter of when.​