Abdul-Jabbar makes surprise appearance at John Wooden first-day ceremony

Philatelic Foreword by Jay Bigalke

First-day-of-issue ceremonies are of interest to me, and I wish I could make it to all of them, but for obvious reasons, that isn’t possible.

One recent ceremony I couldn’t attend was for the commemorative forever stamp honoring basketball coach John Wooden issued Feb. 24 in Los Angeles, Calif., at UCLA.

Normally, a list of guests is circulated in advance, even if on a smaller scale to local media, but this time, things were a little quieter than usual.

That’s because the planners were keeping back a surprise guest: basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. A photograph nearby provided by the Postal Service shows him speaking at the podium at the event.

I heard the crowd was extra enthusiastic when he was introduced. This is an awesome feeling when attending a ceremony, and I was happy to hear something like that took place.

And that guest appearance was noticed by lots of national media outlets, too, including major networks, sports outlets and even a cruise ship newsletter.

Interest in stamps from all types of sources is always positive in my view.

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