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<p>Bunduki "Duke" Ramadan hypes up the crowd during Florida's 42-13 loss to Missouri on Oct. 18, 2014,&nbsp;at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.</p>

Bunduki "Duke" Ramadan hypes up the crowd during Florida's 42-13 loss to Missouri on Oct. 18, 2014, at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.

One student is still keeping the student section hyped even when the Gator football team can’t.

Meet Duke the mic man: hip-hop artist, optimist, brave leader of the student section.

Bunduki Ramadan, who goes by Duke, is UF’s first official mic man. He shared the responsibility of energizing the crowd this football season with Mr. Orange and Blue.

At the beginning of November, Richard Johnston Jr., who has been Mr. Orange and Blue for 31 seasons, announced his retirement.

He’s officially passing the mic to Ramadan.

Ramadan, a 22-year-old UF economics senior with a minor in Arabic studies, helped honor Johnston during the first quarter of Florida’s game against South Carolina last Saturday. Johnston was honored for his service to The Gator Nation and presented with a trophy – one orange shoe and one blue one enclosed in a glass case.

"Most people don’t know who I am unless I’m wearing my one orange one blue shoe," Johnston said. "They see the feet, they look at my face, they say, ‘Oh, you’re that guy.’"

The 57-year-old brokerage lawyer in Fort Myers drove four hours both ways to every home game. Johnston started at UF in the Fall of 1975. He walked on the swim team and then switched to cheerleading in 1978. In 1984 he got a call from the UF Athletic Association asking if he would come back and lead the pre-game pump-up cheers. He’s been there ever since, working as the liaison between the band, cheerleaders and crowd.

"It’s a rush that I can’t explain," Johnston said.

Johnston was just another face on the Spirit Squad until he was highlighted in a video played at Gator Growl a few years ago. Mr. Orange and Blue was born.

His wife, Tracie Carlson, attended Florida State University and is supportive of her husband as Mr. Orange and Blue.

"He’s little-kid happy," Carlson said. "He’s crazy silly about it."

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Johnston said he saw Ramadan connect with the student section at the Eastern Michigan game just like he used to and decided it was time to give his job back to a student.

"I went over, and I listened to him, and I was like ‘Wow, he gets it,’" Johnston said. "He just knows how to communicate with the crowd."

Ramadan became the mic man after an audition at the beginning of the semester. He practices a few times a week with the cheer squad and doesn’t get paid for the position. UF cheer coach Cortnee Alexander said the program added the job of mic man to connect students with the band and cheerleaders.

"Within the first ten minutes of sitting down with Duke I knew right off the bat he was the one," Alexander said.

Patrick Glynn, a 20-year-old public relations senior, met Duke at one of his hip-hop performances last spring. Glynn said Ramadan’s talent with freestyle rapping and entertaining make him a natural on the mic.

"Everyone’s kind of happy when they’re listening to him," Glynn said.

He also said the crowd at the game Saturday loved how Ramadan freestyle-rapped a witty line about the South Carolina Gamecocks’ team mascot.

"He even had the other team laughing," he said.

Ted Fitzgeorge, 57-year-old Gator fan and friend of Johnston, said Johnston had an enviable amount of passion as Mr. Orange and Blue.

"He’s got some big orange and blue Crocs to fill," Fitzgeorge said of Ramadan.

Ramadan sports his own signature style with an orange-and-blue-striped bow tie, white button-down shirt and blue pants with Gator emblems.

But will Ramadan stay on the mic for 31 years?

"We’ll see," he said with a laugh.

Bunduki "Duke" Ramadan hypes up the crowd during Florida's 42-13 loss to Missouri on Oct. 18, 2014, at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.

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