Rick Hader, better known to sports fans as Myron Noodleman, whose lovable nerd shtick provided a comical break from the action at minor league baseball stadiums and other athletic events across the country, died Wednesday of complications from cancer.
The Tulsa resident was 59.
Services are pending.
“Rick Hader, loved by so many as Myron Noodleman, the Clown Prince of Baseball, leaves this world knowing he made millions laugh and that alone is a life well-lived,” Jon Terry, Hader’s longtime publicist, wrote on his Facebook page Wednesday morning.
A GoFundMe page was set up by Terry last week to raise money for Hader’s medical treatments and other expenses.
Despite battling a rare form of cancer for the last few months, Hader was still able to evoke smiles from those around him, said his brother, Matt Hader.
“Rick retained his sense of humor in light of his circumstances, which helped to ease everyone else’s pain. He was a showman to the end,” he said.
Hader, who perfected his alter ego at Tulsa Drillers games, had been appearing regularly as Noodleman since the mid-1990s, both as a full-time gig and as a sideline to teaching high school math at Union Public Schools.
Billing himself as a mix of “Groucho Marx, Pee-wee Herman, the Nutty Professor and Urkel,” Hader at one point was performing at upwards of 70 minor league baseball games a year around the country, along with 20 to 25 basketball games and a few corporate appearances.
“What makes the character work is that he’s a nerd, but he’s cocky about it. That’s what makes it funny,” Hader told the Tulsa World once. “When people first see me, they think, ‘Who is this idiot?’ After they see the act, they like it.”
Hader had family ties to the entertainment industry. His brother, Matt, is a screenwriter, and he was the uncle of Bill Hader, the Tulsa-born actor and former “Saturday Night Live” cast member.
Rick Hader was a native of Park Ridge, Illinois. Graduating from Maine South High School in 1976.
He came up with the Noodleman look — the novelty teeth, glasses, poorly fitted suit with vest, bow tie, white socks with black shoes, hair slicked into place by handfuls of gel — for a 1981 Halloween costume contest at a Chicago bar. He won the first prize of $1,000.
Already holding an economics degree, Hader moved to Tulsa in 1982 and added a math degree from Northeastern State University in Tahlequah.
In 1987, he joined the faculty of Union High School as a math teacher.
Appearing as Noodleman only at costume contests initially, he expanded to parties and Walmart stores, and that led to a few Drillers games.
Following that were some University of Tulsa football and basketball gigs, and even a few University of Oklahoma football games.
College sports would not remain Hader’s arena for long, though.
“OU quit using me when some alumni … said they didn’t want a nerdy guy representing their fine institution,” Hader recalled. “That’s when I knew my future wasn’t in college sports. It’s too traditional. I needed to be in pro sports, where people were there to have fun and didn’t take it all so seriously.”
Minor league baseball, he discovered, fit the bill perfectly.
Before the 1994 season, Hader showed up at baseball’s winter meetings in character as Noodleman, hoping to attract attention.
It worked.
Bookings with dozens of minor league baseball clubs followed. Suddenly Hader had a full-time job on his hands.
After several years out of education, in 2012 Hader resumed his career with Union as a special education aide. In 2014, he returned to the classroom as a math teacher at Union High School.
District spokesman Chris Payne said of Hader, “He was beloved not only by students and other teachers, but he gave joy to so many as alter ego Myron Noodleman. … Rick left teaching to pursue his entertainment career full-time. Like many educators, he could not resist the call to return to the classroom. We will miss him greatly, and wish his family the very best.”
Over his career as a sports entertainer, Hader won fans in high places. Actor and comedian Bill Murray, part owner of the St. Paul Saints baseball team in Minnesota, tracked Hader down after an appearance there several years ago.
“He said, ‘Hey, Myron. You made me laugh.’”
“That was pretty cool,” Hader recalled. “Considering that it came from Bill Murray, I’d call that the greatest compliment I’ve ever had.”
Hader’s survivors include his wife, Kim; three children, Amanda Hader Katomski, Madison Suppes and Ethan Suppes; his father, Arthur Hader; and six brothers and a sister.