Oklahoma's ' Survivor' makes it to the final show

Millions of fans across the nation will be tuning in Sunday to the finale of Survivor Vanauatu. Oklahoma fans have a special tie to the show; one of those in the running is a Stillwater woman, who's

Friday, December 10th 2004, 11:28 am

By: News On 6

Millions of fans across the nation will be tuning in Sunday to the finale of Survivor Vanauatu. Oklahoma fans have a special tie to the show; one of those in the running is a Stillwater woman, who's drawing quite a bit of attention to her hometown.

News on 6 reporter Heather Lewin says Jeff Hulstine has a rather unusual claim to fame, last year a woman came into the store where he worked and insisted on buying his hat. â€œI didn't really understand why someone would want to wear a used hat. She gave me her phone number and whatnot and I actually drove out to her place and sold it to her and then I really just kind of forgot about it."

Hulstine was later shocked to find the 60-year old Stillwater resident and his hat on national television. "The first time I saw it I was like, wow. I was telling a friend of mine, I guess some of my clothing articles are becoming famous."

So famous, those fans saw it on Scout Lee's head and traced it all the way back to the shop it came from. "Stillwater Building Supply, Butch, may I help you?" Rob Simpson: "The first phone call we got was just this last week, when a girl from Maine wanted a hat." Thinking it was a bit strange, the store shipped one out.

Since then they've gotten calls from both coasts, Survivor fanatics, wanting a hat like Scout's. Workers say they normally don't sell the hats, but with the massive popularity of Survivor and having a local Oklahoman on the show, if Scout wins, maybe they should.

Rob Simpson: "It's just been something we've given to our customers. We never expected anything like this." Scout is set to battle it out Sunday with the other 3 remaining castaways.

Win or lose, for her fellow Oklahomans it's been a fun ride. A major watch party is planned for Sunday night at 7 PM at Eskimo Joe's in Stillwater.