Mr. Orange Power and his jumpsuit are retiring

STILLWATER — Mr. Orange Power is hanging up his jumpsuit.

Saturdays at Boone Pickens Stadium won’t look the same without Oklahoma State superfan Lee Redick wearing his fluorescent orange get-up. Won’t sound the same either without him waving his “ORANGE” sign to get the chant going on the north side, then getting the “POWER” response from the south side.

He has become part of the fabric of Cowboy football.

But now, Redick has retired his game-day persona.

The reason?

Bad knees.

“I just had my first gel injection,” he said earlier this week. “I had a steroid shot before that because they were starting to grind and give out.

“I’m not that young kid anymore.” But for 22 seasons, Redick acted as youthful as any Cowboy fan, popping up to signal first downs and starting the “Orange Power” chant to encourage defensive stops. His departure leaves such a void that celebrity guests will attempt to fill his jumpsuit this season, starting Saturday during OSU’s opener against Missouri State.

It’s the OSU version of guest hosts for Jeopardy!

OSU will be hard pressed, though, to find anyone more passionate about the Cowboys than Redick.

He grew up in Sapulpa, and while he was an OSU fan, he wasn’t a diehard. He didn’t have time to be after his father died. His older brother was mentally handicapped and his younger brother was deaf, so Redick’s school-teacher mother put a lot of responsibility on him.

But when he and his best friend went off to OSU, Redick felt like he’d landed in the most magical place. Part of the reason was the responsibilities at home were gone -- “I went from serious to wide open,” he said with a chuckle -but he also felt a connection to the people.

“That really kind of was the seed,” he said.

After college, he bought season tickets for football and basketball and even traveled to away games every now and then.

Redick and his wife, Kristi, were in Kansas City for the Big 12 men’s basketball tournament in 1999 when Mr. Orange Power was born. He always liked to bellow “Orange!” and start the chant, so at one point during OSU’s first game, Kristi told him he should go to the front of their section and get other Cowboy fans to join him.

Redick directed the cheer with his hands, first “Orange,” then “Power!” “And it took off,” he said.

The Cowboys kept winning, and Redick kept leading the “Orange Power!” cheer. Even when OSU played Kansas in the championship game and Jayhawk fans filled the arena, the chant could still be heard.

But still, Redick didn’t leave Kansas City with a grand plan to become Mr. Orange Power. That wasn’t hatched until that summer when the Redicks bought a house and found some discarded stuff in the basement.

Among the items: a fluorescent orange jumpsuit.

“And it fit,” Redick said. “So, I’m like, ‘That’s what I’m wearing.’”

Side note: the jumpsuit was insulated, great for football games late in the season, not so great for the early ones.

“Those September games were miserable,” Redick recalled.

He replaced that first suit with a non-insulated version, and over the years, he’s gone through three or four. But each has gotten special treatment with OSU patches and ORANGE POWER lettering added.

Along the way, Redick became known as Mr. Orange Power, or even Mr. OP or just OP. But for him, the moment he realized his game-day persona had been stitched into the orange-andblack fabric of OSU was right before the 2004 Cotton Bowl against Ole Miss and Eli Manning.

The OSU Alumni Association had a fan event before the game at Gilley’s in Dallas, and Cowboy faithful packed the joint to the point it took nearly an hour to get a drink. People were growing restless. Redick was on a back patio with some friends when he heard his name. Or his nickname anyway.

“We need Mr. Orange Power on stage,” a voice inside said.

The official festivities hadn’t started, and the energy wasn’t great. Someone had decided Redick could infuse some excitement into the crowd while also distracting people from the long waits for drinks and food.

By the time he finished, the Cowboy fans were fired up.

“It was rocking,” Redick remembered.

After that night, Mr. Orange Power got invited to the annual coaches’ retreat at Grand Lake, and things went so well, he became a regular at the event. He has fired up the crowd at Orange Peel, been on an Eskimo Joe’s shirt, appeared on ESPN’s College GameDay and posed for thousands of photos with fellow OSU fans.

Redick, a sales exec for Griffin Communications, marvels at what Mr. Orange Power became.

“I never planned anything,” he said. “It just didn’t stop.”

He believes he knows why, too. “People like to have fun,” he said. “That’s all we’re trying to do is have a good time and help the team win.”

Lee Redick plans to continue doing that. He will be at a couple football games this season, and having fun and supporting the Cowboys will still be his prime objectives.

He just won’t be wearing a bright orange jumpsuit.

Quite frankly, even if OSU finds someone to wear the jumpsuit and lead the chant and take over as Mr. Orange Power permanently, it won’t be the same.

Redick is the original OP.

OKLAHOMAN ARCHIVES Mr. Orange Power, Lee Redick, takes video of the crowd at the Walk before the Bedlam college football game in 2011.

SARAH PHIPPS/THE OKLAHOMAN Lee Redick, also known as Mr. Orange Power, has been a fixture at Oklahoma State football games for more than two decades. He has hung up his jumpsuit, and this season, OSU will have celebrity guests each game leading the “Orange Power!” chant.