Meet the Oklahoma State student who wears an Oilers jersey to sporting events

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When Jonah Abrell stepped foot onto Oklahoma State’s campus in 2019, he wore almost every item of orange clothing he owned during the first three weeks of school.

As he rummaged through his closet to find something orange to wear to the first OSU football game, Abrell learned he had run out. Every orange T-Shirt was piled up in his dirty laundry.

Abrell still had time to use the dormitory laundry machines and have a fresh bunch of orange gear to pick from before kickoff; there was just one problem.

“Embarrassingly enough, I didn’t know how to use the dorm laundry machines,” Abrell said with a laugh. “All my orange shirts were dirty for the first football game.

“... I’m not gonna wear a dirty shirt, but I’m gonna find a way to wear something orange. And the only thing I had left (with orange on it) was my Wayne Gretzky jersey.”

Six years later, Abrell — a second-year grad student — still attends OSU sporting events wearing the Edmonton Oilers Gretzky jersey. He’s become popular among Cowboy and Cowgirl fans as “the hockey jersey guy” thanks to a relatable college freshman situation, and he’s closing in on his final months as a student — and as the jersey-wearer.

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It was Sept. 7, 2019, with OSU and McNeese State scheduled for a 6 p.m. game at Boone Pickens Stadium. The reported kickoff temperature was 95 degrees — not friendly for long-sleeved polyester, but Abrell was determined to wear his last bit of orange, so he threw on the No. 99 Gretzky jersey he bought in 2017 as a junior in high school.

The Cowboys thrashed McNeese 56-14, and Abrell got on the jumbotron for the entire crowd to see an Edmonton hockey jersey at a football game in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The image OSU fans saw on the big screen that day has become a mainstay at sporting events across campus.

“I was stoked,” Abrell said. “So I was like, ‘Might as well wear it to the next game.’ And here I am six years later.”

Abrell’s dedication to making the jersey an every-game piece is relentless. He ensures his jersey matches, even if the crowd isn’t a sea of orange that day.

OSU vs TCU in 2021 was a blackout game in honor of Barry Sanders’ induction into OSU football's Ring of Honor. Abrell had no plans to change out of Gretzky’s threads — they just needed an alteration.

Abrell took a trip to Hobby Lobby and bought supplies to customize the jersey. Sure enough, his Oilers jersey matched the black OSU T-shirts and jerseys that filled BPS that night.

“(I used) black decorative tape,” Abrell said. “I covered the whole thing in tape, besides the “Gretzky,” the numbers and the Oilers (logo)... basically everything that was blue turned black.”

That commitment and consistency made Abrell and his hockey jersey well-known. The OSU community expects to see the orange, blue and white Gretzky jersey — or an altered version in some instances — at most sporting events.

Abrell ditched the Oilers jersey once last men’s basketball season and wore a cursive “Cowboys” sweatshirt instead. He said he planned on “keeping it casual” and enjoying the game.

The staff at Gallagher-Iba Arena had other plans.

The jumbotron featured Abrell as usual, but with an added message at the bottom: Dude, where’s your jersey?

“I got told off for wearing OSU gear basically,” Abrell said.

Abrell has been asked by a fan to take a picture with his toddler, and he’s been chased down by tailgaters who spot him from a distance. Despite it having no real correlation to OSU sports, fans love seeing Gretzky’s No. 99 on game days.

When they ask Abrell why he wears the jersey, he tells fans it’s because former OSU star running back Chuba Hubbard is from Edmonton — home of the Oilers.

That’s partly why Abrell continued to wear it; Hubbard has been Abrell’s “favorite player that’s been (at OSU)” since he started school. But Abrell never told fans that not knowing how to use the washing machines put him in the situation to begin with.

“My fandom for Chuba isn’t over exaggerated,” Abrell said. “It’s part of why (I wear the jersey), but the beginning of it was just a few weeks before… (when I didn’t know) how to use the dorm laundry.”

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Come May, Abrell will have worn the Gretzky jersey to more graduations than NHL games.

Abrell graduated with an English degree in 2023 and wore the jersey under his gown. He’ll walk the stage in two months with a graduate degree in mental health counseling and wear it again.

After Abrell attends his last softball or baseball game, he plans to take the jersey to Duffy’s Dry Cleaners — the place it's been cleaned all these years — for one last wash and put it in a frame with pictures of when he rushed fields and courts while wearing it.

“I’ll go into June with it for softball and baseball,” Abrell said. “I’m gonna be sweating, but I’m not gonna change out of it now.”

That won’t be the last time Abrell wears No. 99 on his sleeve, though.

Abrell plans to get Gretzky’s number tattooed on his left arm in the same spot it’d be when he wears the jersey.

“It’ll be in the same font on the jersey,” Abrell said. “So even though I’m gonna retire the jersey, it’ll always be with me.”