Who was the 1st player to have his uniform retired in one of the four major sports?

I'm sorry, the 4 major sports are baseball, football, basketball and hockey. Talk to you later as in a little while I am going to the movies.

looks like it's Lou Gehrig, but if it's not this still makes for interesting reading:

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Name at Birth: Henry Louis Gehrig
Gehrig played in 2130 consecutive games for the New York Yankees from 1925 to 1939, gaining the nickname "The Iron Horse." A slugging first baseman, Gehrig played with teammates like Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio during the Yankee glory years of the 1920s and 1930s. Gehrig won a rare triple crown in 1934, leading the league with 49 homers, 165 RBI and a .363 batting average. He also was chosen the league's most valuable player in 1927 and 1936, but is best-remembered for his 15-season streak of consecutive games, a record which stood until it was broken by Cal Ripken in 1995. Gehrig retired after 8 games of the 1939 season and was diagnosed with the degenerative disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS -- now known as Lou Gehrig's Disease. The Yankees held a recognition day for Gehrig on 4 July 1939, at which he spoke his famous line, "Today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth." He died two years later in New York.

Extra credit: Wally Pipp, the player Gehrig replaced at the start of his streak, has become a famous bit of baseball trivia ... The Yankees retired Gehrig's uniform number 4 in 1939 -- the first player in any sport ever to receive that honor ... Gehrig was played by actor Gary Cooper in the 1942 film Pride of the Yankees... Gehrig was also nicknamed "Larrupin' Lou"... Famous people with ALS include actor David Niven and physicist Stephen Hawking. www.who2.com/lougehrig.html

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some more trivia:

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Lou Gehrig was the first athlete to have his number retired. Upon his retirement in 1939, the New York Yankees retired his number 4 jersey, a practice that is still continued by virtually all sports.

Lou Gehrig holds the record for most grand slams in a career with 23.

In early 1925, the Yankees offered to trade Lou Gehrig to the Boston Red Sox for first baseman, Phil Todt, to repay Boston for the blockbuster Babe Ruth trade a few years earlier. The Red Sox turned the Yankees down.

Lou Gehrig, while playing first base, hit 493 home runs, the most by any first baseman in history.

Gehrig is the only player in history to drive in 500 runs in three years. He ushered in 174 runs in 1930, 184 in 1931 and 151 in 1932, for a total of 509. www.lougehrig.com/dyk.html

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The Iron Horse

Most people go for Gehrig but someone else had there uniform retired a few years before him. In fact I can name 3 others, one in the NFL and the other two, including the 1st one, that were in the NHL.

to the top, for more stabs in the dark

Hint: He played in the NHL.

and stumper #3 to the top

As a pedantic QM can I ask what you mean by uniform retired. Does this mean for example W.G.Graces whites(Cricket attire) going into retirement in the early 1900's (I can go back at least 2000 years before that if you don't mean actual clothing or just a number!!!!!)

He did play cricket then - but not WG he wasn't a stumper !