The legend of "Lucille" began in Week 16 of the 2019 NFL season at StubHub Center – now Dignity Health Sports Park – in Southern California.

Gabriela Rice, a retired Navy Petty Officer First Class of 20 years, traveled to see the Raiders play the Chargers on the road following the Silver and Black's last game played at Oakland Coliseum.

It wasn't her first rodeo at a Raiders game, having grown up a diehard fan in Oakland, California. She was family friends with late cornerback Skip "Dr. Death" Thomas and went to numerous games with her father. While serving in the military stationed in the Middle East, she would even wake up at 2 a.m. to watch the Raiders playing live back in the States.

But for this game in particular, she was in attendance with one of her close friends, a Chargers fan, who served in the military alongside her. The two had built a tradition over the course of a few years in which they'd visit each other to see the divisional foes square off.

Rice's friend came up with the idea to wear something a little different for this game.

"She had this afro-wig and she said, 'You should get a wig too. Let's both wear afros to the game,'" Rice said. "I used to just buy different color wigs and wear them, but had never done the afro. I said, 'Alright, I'm going to do it's going to be funny.' Because we thought it was just going to be a joke and we'd look like two idiots with afros at the game."

Their goal was to make waves on the Jumbotron among the sea of fans – except when the cameraman finally found them, Rice's friend had temporarily left her seat. But Gabriela kept dancing with the giant wig on.

In her mind, she assumed being on the Jumbotron of StubHub Center would be the end of a little fun. But then the power of social media came and did it's thing.

"I remember my phone kept going off during the game and that used to irritate me because everyone that knows me knows I'm at the game," she said. "Stop bothering me – don't call me, don't text me, I don't want to talk to you, I'm focused.

"Then I saw all these messages and all this stuff and I was like, 'What is happening?'"

Her dance moves and outfit made it to the airwaves on the television broadcast and soon after, it was plastered across numerous social media platforms.

Following the game, she hopped on a fan podcast where she coined the trademark nickname for her afro, which has stuck with Raider Nation to this day.

"I'm taking the wig and I'm pulling it and I say, 'Oh this a wig.' And just randomly I said, 'You know sometimes I like to take Lucille out every now and again,' just naming the wig. That was just a random name, I have no attachment to it. So the next day, I get back on Twitter and they're saying, 'Oh, her name her Lucille.' and they ran with it.

"And I was like, 'Dang, I'm stuck with this name now.' In hindsight I wish I would've come up with something cooler."

With the attention she garnered, several players and alumni began to gravitate to the charm of the superfan on social media, including star edge rusher Maxx Crosby giving her a shoutout.

"If it wasn't for Maxx wearing the shirt, I would've dropped it a long time ago," she laughed. "Because I felt really uncomfortable with people wearing the shirt. I would always say, 'A fan can't have fans.' That's not how this works. ... I've always been reluctant to say these are my fans, they're just people that follow me."

At the end of the day, she simply prides herself on being a veteran that protected this country with an unbridled passion for the Raiders organization.

"The Navy saved my life honestly," she said. "I graduated high school and I had zero direction just hanging around people that I shouldn't have.

"And I have to say when people say Raider Nation is family, I truly believe that. ... There's so many people that I've come across [at games] and now they're the closest friends I have. Raider Nation never ceases to amaze me, period."