Oklahoma State will honor the late T. Boone Pickens with a statue of the longtime benefactor outside its football stadium later this season.
The school announced Thursday that a 9-foot-tall bronze depiction of Pickens, who gave an NCAA-record $165 million gift to the university in 2005, will be unveiled prior to the Cowboys’ Nov. 28 game vs. Texas Tech. The statue will stand immediately west of Boone Pickens Stadium, the home of Oklahoma State football.
“We could never thank him enough for all that he did for our university,” Oklahoma State athletic director Mike Holder said. “He gave us everything he had and all that he asked in return was that we play by the rules and dream big.”
Pickens, a billionaire oil tycoon, died on Sept. 11, 2019, at age 91. He graduated from Oklahoma State in 1951 with a geology degree. Over time he gave $652 million to the university, including $300 million to Oklahoma State athletics. Oklahoma State’s School of Geology bears his name.
The Cowboys football program benefited significantly from Pickens’ philanthropy, which led to the construction of several state-of-the-art athletic facilities, including the football stadium. Oklahoma State had only three double-digit win seasons in the 91 years prior to Pickens’ 2005 gift. Since then, under coach Mike Gundy, who took over the program that same year, the Cowboys have won 10 or more games six times, including a 2011 Big 12 championship and Fiesta Bowl win.
