BY DANIEL SCHMIDT
THE OBSERVER
OPELIKA — On Friday nights at Bulldog Stadium, the Opelika High School faithful arrive in force clad in red and black, cheering their hometown team on to victory for hours at a time. However, their most ardent supporter wears not the school’s unmistakable colors, but rather Pullman Brown.
He is Richard Oden, better known around town as the UPS guy. Before retiring after 25 years as a package delivery driver, he began arriving at Opelika home games in 2024 still wearing his work uniform and more than prepared to whip his fellow Bulldog fans into a ravenous frenzy.
“Statistically speaking, based on my childhood, I was destined to fail,” Richard said. Long before he ever dreamed of working for UPS, he told himself that stacking up small daily wins would eventually make him unstoppable. That mindset became the “UPS Man in the Stands, Delivering Wins.”
Now, Richard and his wife, Brittany Oden, are making the most of a bittersweet season that is much sweeter than it is bitter. The mix of emotions is centered on the fact it will be the last season the couple’s two oldest adopted sons — Elijah Oden, a senior defensive end, and Kentrell Oden, a junior wide receiver — are guaranteed to play on the same field.
This last shared season carries added weight given the program they represent. Opelika reached the Class 7A state championship game a year ago and entered this season eyeing another deep playoff run.
“It’s exciting that my boys get to play for a great program like Opelika,” Richard said. “Going to a state championship last year, [and] probably on the road to a deep run this year, that’s just icing on the cake.”
What began as a father’s show of support, became a gimmick that has earned Richard viral fame and millions of views online. His fanatical approach, he said, runs deeper than any final score.
“When I went to the games, the cheerleaders, band members and student section were all doing their job, but one group wasn’t being loud: the parents and grandparents,” Richard said. “I’m there to remind them that fan is short for fanatic. Let’s be fanatical about supporting our team and our boys.”
He added the change only needed someone to start it.
“I use the concept of a wedding: you’ve got a DJ, but nobody goes on the dance floor,” Richard said. “All it takes is that one person or couple, and then all of a sudden the dance floor fills up.” He said he figuted if the fans needed a leader, he was more than willing to be it, and the crowd responds.
His antics have earned him recognition around Opelika, though admirers usually know him by his nickname rather than his God-given name.
“Initially, we told him we’d disown him and that he couldn’t sit with the rest of the family in the stands,” Brittany said. “But I guess it does work. We’ve seen it work, and [Richard] saw it work first.”
According to Brittany, the couple’s younger children just think their dad is crazy, and it’s a charge Richard said he’s happy to concede.
It’s been a winding road to this point, one Richard has known all too well. More than 6,000 children are currently in foster care across Alabama, and Richard was one of them for years.
Between the ages of 3 and 11, he shuffled through nine different foster homes, hauling his belongings and his heartache with him, before Gerry and Debbie Oden gave him a new surname and a place to call home.
On Jan. 29, 2016, Elijah, Kentrell and their biological sister, Gabby, officially became Odens after spending 1,008 days in Alabama’s foster care system themselves.
Once adopted, they were immediately steered into as many activities as possible so they would grow into well-rounded adults. To this day, pictures of Elijah and Kentrell in their youth league uniforms hang on the walls in the family home.
For Brittany, who describes herself as anything but a sports fan, the payoff has been simpler than any final score.
“I’m not a sports person, but it’s really fun to watch your own kids excel and hear their name called,” Brittany said. “We feel like playing sports keeps you out of trouble,stay involved and stay in school. So far, I think they’ve done good with that.”
Richard said he sees a gift worth protecting.
“God gave us these two boys through foster care and adoption, and He blessed them with something no coach can teach: size,” he said. “They’re 6-foot-4 and 6-foot-2. I saw the potential, and I didn’t want them to waste what God had gifted them.”
That belief was tested during Elijah’s sophomore year, when the elder brother announced he was finished with football for good.
“I don’t raise quitters,” Richard said he told his son at the time. “One day you’ll thank me for that.”
According to Richard, the refusal was never about a scholarship, but about the lessons the sport instills.
“It was the life lessons — getting knocked on your butt and deciding if you’re going to get up and do better, or lay there and quit,” Richard said. “Life is hard. If you ever get laid off from a job, you’re going to remember those lessons you learned playing high school football.”
Less than a year later, Elijah returned with news that Troy wanted him to visit. It was a trip that led to a Division I scholarship offer he has since committed to.
Richard reminded his son of the warning he’d issued a year before. “Dad, thank you for not letting me quit football,” Elijah told him.
With Elijah bound for Troy, Richard — who now drives a school bus for Opelika City Schools after retiring from UPS — is already plotting how to bring the UPS Man in the Stands to the collegiate level.
“The first game, he wouldn’t let me wear my UPS shirt, but I was getting the Troy fans hyped,” Richard said. Three or four of them approached him afterward, he said, asking him to come back every game. “So, I’m about to take this to the collegiate level. That’s my plan.”
Even after Elijah departs, the UPS Man’s work at Bulldog Stadium is far from finished. Kentrell has his senior season ahead, guaranteeing Richard at least one more year leading the charge before the family’s Opelika football chapter comes to a close.
For now, he will keep working to pack Bulldog Stadium to the point, as he likes to say, that the fire marshal has to start making calls.
“Wear that red and black. Come support your team, and get some concessions,” Richard said. “I promise you, if you do that, I’ll get you fired up and you’ll be glad you came. That’s my promise to you.”
