Oklahoma State University

City:  | Stillwater, Oklahoma
Type:  | Public
Sports:  | football, basketball, cross country, wrestling, track and field, baseball, golf, tennis, equestrian, soccer, softball[1]
Colors:  | orange, black
Mascot:  | Cowboys
Website:  | http://osu.okstate.edu/

Oklahoma State University is a public university located in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The school was founded on December 25, 1890, as Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College. The name was changed to its current format in 1957. There are also 3 other campuses located in Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and Okmulgee. Enrollment totals for these four campuses is around 26,000 students.

## Athletics[edit]

The Oklahoma State University athletic team name is the Cowboys and their mascot is Pistol Pete. The university has a rich athletic tradition and has been awarded 48 NCAA National Championships, which ranks fourth all-time behind Stanford, USC, and UCLA, primarily due to success in collegiate wrestling and men's golf.

Prominent figures:

* Henry Iba\- basketball coach, led Cowboys to back to back NCAA men's basketball championships in 1945-46 (the first team to win consecutive titles)
* Eddie Sutton \- basketball coach
* Barry Sanders \- football player, 1988 Heisman Trophy winner, #3 on all-time NFL rushing list
* Thurman Thomas \- football player, #11 on all-time NFL rushing list
* John Smith \- wrestler/coach, two time Olympic gold medallist

The athletics program is funded by a separate corporation called "Cowboy Athletics" which decided to upgrade OSU facilities and to construct a new athletic village on the edge of the OSU campus. Two hundred homes were taken by eminent domain and torn down to make way for the campus expansion. In 2005, T. Boone Pickens donated $165 million to renovate the football stadium. Instead of spending this donation on the stadium's construction costs, OSU Athletic Director Mike Holder decided to invest the funds with BP Capital expecting to earn a 20% return. Cowboy Athletics took out loans and sold bonds to finance the stadium and athletic village using its investment as collateral. Although the Cowboy Athletics' investment in BP Capital grew to $400 million, it dropped in the recession to $125 million by the time that it was sold.[2]

A second fundraising plan was called "Gift of a Lifetime", which involved purchasing life insurance policies on older OSU alumni. Cowboy Athletics expected to make between $100 million to $250 million, depending on when the 27 specific alumni died. Essentially, Cowboy Athletics was betting that it was better at estimating life expectancies than the insurance company. It spent $16.6 million in first year premiums on those life insurance policies in 2007. By the time that the 2009 insurance premiums were due, OSU concluded that the plan would not make money, and decided to not pay any more premiums. It lost the $33 million in premiums paid to date and was sued by the insurance companies.[2]

As a result, by the end of 2010, Cowboy Athletics' liabilities were more than $15 million greater than its assets. Except for an indoor football practice field that has been funded by a separate gift from Sherman Smith, the rest of the athletic village has not been built. Pickens is paying off Cowboy Athletics' $84 million loan obligations with gifts of $3 million every calendar quarter.[2]

## References[edit]

1. ↑ http://www.okstate.com/
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Ann Zimmerman and Leslie Scism. "Boone Calls the Plays as Largess Complicates Life at Alma Mater", Wall Street Journal, July 7, 2012, p. A1.

## External links[edit]

* Official Website
* Oklahoma State University Athletics

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