Jágr wears the number 68, which he has worn through his entire career, in honour of the Prague Spring that occurred in Czechoslovakia in 1968 and his grandfather, who died while in prison that same year, and had earlier been imprisoned for opposing the collectivization of his farm in the postwar Communist takeover of Czechoslovakia.[5][69] In any interviews when asked about his number Jágr explains that he wears it not due to bad relations with Russian people, but rather due to disaffection with Communism.