Mays and Summitt to Appear on 2027 U.S. Postal Stamps

The U.S. Postal Service plans to honor baseball star Willie Mays and longtime University of Tennessee women’s basketball coach Pat Summitt with stamps in 2027. Mays’ stamp will be the 50th in the agency’s Black Heritage series, while Summitt’s will feature a painted portrait.

Mays’ design takes its cue from baseball cards, pairing an image of him as a New York Giant with a smaller picture of his famous over-the-shoulder catch during the 1954 World Series. He died in 2024 at 93. Over a career spanning 1951 to 1973, he made 24 All-Star teams and won two National League Most Valuable Player awards.

Summitt coached Tennessee from 1974 to 2012, finishing with a record of 1,098 wins and 208 losses. Her teams won eight NCAA championships. She stepped down after one more season following her 2011 announcement that she had early-onset dementia. Summitt died in 2016, aged 64.

The 2027 stamp lineup will also include designs for the Lunar New Year, the U.S. flag, vegetables, flowers, unicorns and Halloween. A childhood cancer research stamp will direct surcharge proceeds to the National Institutes of Health. Other planned designs include wedding and all-occasion invitations, a love stamp and one featuring the nation’s motto, “E Pluribus Unum.”