This year's corn maize at the Reding Farm in Chickasha, Oklahoma features the rivalry between the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University.

OKLAHOMA CITY — In late July, when Jerry and Nancy Reding’s corn was about knee high, three men showed up at their Chickasha, Oklahoma farm armed with flags, paint, the weed-killer RoundUp and an elaborate plan.

The men, experts in their craft, spent about nine hours in the cornfield, using paint to outline the couple’s annual corn maze, then spraying RoundUp to create elaborate pathways and designs.

“We could cut it ourselves, but it would take us several weeks to do it,” Nancy Reding said. “Everybody thinks they use GPS, but they don’t.”

Later, after the corn had grown, the Redings, who are in their 60s, climbed into an airplane to look at what their money and imagination had wrought.

In years past, they’ve created “maizes” featuring the Wizard of Oz, the Beatles’ yellow submarine, a cattle drive, zoo animals and even an epic “Farm Wars” battle pitting a cowboy hat-wearing Darth Vader against a pitchfork-carrying Yoda.

But this year’s maze — their eighth — is Nancy Reding’s favorite. For her, it represented the best of bedlam — the long-standing rivalry between the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University — while honoring the state’s two largest public schools.

“I’ve actually wanted to do it for several years now,” she said. “I’m a football fan, but yet my husband doesn’t have time to do football. I always thought it would be neat to have our state’s football teams as our theme.”

Soaring over their land, the Redings could see etched into their corn elaborate images of both schools’ mascots, Pistol Pete and the Sooner Schooner, as well as OU and OSU football helmets and a football.

This year the 38-acre maze is believed to be one of the largest in the world, Nancy Reding said. Walk all of its pathways, and you’ll have trekked about seven miles, she said.

After the couple married nine years ago, Jerry Reding approached his wife with a plan to make their farming operation profitable.

“Agriculture is not what it used to be,” she said. “You have to have the big huge equipment to do the stuff. And you have to have a lot of land. We need to find something else that we can make a profit (from) and use the land in a different way.”

Jerry Reding, who has been at the wheel of a tractor even before he could reach the pedals, proposed using the fields for a different purpose — to build a giant maze, for which they would sell tickets.

“The market goes up and down so much,” Nancy Reding said. “We feel like harvesting people is a lot better than harvesting crops.”

Last year, nearly 8,000 visited their farm.

The Redings hope even more will visit this season.

Jerry Reding still attempts to harvest his corn once the maze closes in early November. The past few years, his fields have been plagued by migratory geese and ducks who’ve eaten a lot of the crop.

So, most years, Jerry Reding just harvests the seed and tills the ground to rebuild the soil for next year.

Nancy Reding, who works a concession stand when the maze is open, said she doesn’t know whether OU or OSU fans are better at navigating the corn.

Some OU students tried to challenge OSU to a good-natured competition to find out, she said, but they didn’t get any takers from OSU.

The Redings, themselves, live on a farm divided. While neither attended OU or OSU, Nancy Reding finds herself rooting for the crimson and cream. Jerry, who has a deep rooted interest in OSU’s agricultural school and an uncle who taught there, roots for the black and orange.

The maze has become a community endeavor.

This year, Grady County’s 12 volunteer firefighters spend weekends haunting a designated portion of the maze. They hope their visibility helps recruit new members.

Reding won’t say how the firefighters are dressed.

She said you’ll have to come visit for yourself.

“I can’t give away secrets,” she said.

The “Maize” is open through Nov. 1. Tickets are $10. A haunted hayride costs $10. Exploring the “haunted maize” costs $15. For more information visit www.redsiloproductions.com

Janelle Stecklein covers the Oklahoma Statehouse for CNHI’s newspapers and websites. Reach her at jstecklein@cnhi.com.