Willie Mays and Pat Summitt to be honored with U.S. Postal Service stamps next year

The U.S. Postal Service has announced that baseball legend Willie Mays and former Tennessee women's basketball coach Pat Summitt will be honored with commemorative stamps next year. Mays, who passed away in 2024 at the age of 93, was a 24-time All-Star and two-time National League Most Valuable Player. His stamp, which resembles a baseball card, showcases a portrait of Mays in his New York Giants uniform, along with an inset image of his iconic catch of a ball hit by Cleveland's Vic Wertz during the 1954 World Series opener.

Mays had a distinguished career from 1951 to 1973, batting .301 with 660 home runs and 1,909 RBIs. The orange background on the stamp represents the colors of the New York and San Francisco Giants, as well as the New York Mets. This stamp will be the 50th in the USPS's Black Heritage series, designed by Antonio Alcalá, a renowned art director for the Postal Service.

Summitt, who died in 2016 at 64, led the University of Tennessee to eight NCAA basketball championships and posted an impressive career record of 1,098-208 from 1974 to 2012. Her stamp features an oil-on-primed-linen portrait by artist Roberto Parada. Ethel Kessler, a distinguished art director for the USPS, designed the stamp. Summitt has been inducted into both the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame and the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame.