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

WASHINGTON (AP) — Baseball Hall of Famer Willie Mays and longtime Tennessee women’s basketball coach Pat Summitt will be honored with stamps next year, the U.S. Postal Service announced Monday.

Mays, who died in 2024 at age 93, was a 24-time All-Star and two-time National League Most Valuable Player.

His stamp, designed to look like a baseball card, will feature a portrait of Mays with the New York Giants and an inset image of the outfielder making his famous, over-the-shoulder catch of a drive by Cleveland’s Vic Wertz in the 1954 World Series opener. Mays batted .301 with 660 homers and 1,909 RBIs from 1951-73.

The orange background refers to a color of Mays’ teams, the New York and San Francisco Giants and the New York Mets. It will be the 50th stamp of the USPS’s Black Heritage series and was designed by Antonio Alcalá, an art director of the USPS.

Summitt, who died in 2016 at age 64, led Tennessee to eight NCAA championships and compiled a career record of 1,098-208 from 1974-2012. Her stamp features an oil-on-primed-linen portrait created by Roberto Parada. It was designed by Ethel Kessler, an art director for USPS.

Summitt is in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame and the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.

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