Even though I’m an OU fan—I’m a fan of Boone Pickens. I found him to be an interesting man who was never boring. I read two of his books and he was a character for sure.
He had a sense of audacity about him almost bigger than life ranging from his boom and bust business life to his giving of money to his favorite charity which was Oklahoma State University.
All told…Pickens donated almost a billion dollars to his alma mater and it didn’t just go to the football team. It went to every facet of the university.
But make no mistake about this…he wanted O State to win a national championship in football. He wanted O State to reach the football heights of both Texas and Oklahoma.
In 2011, ‘his’ team came within one missed field goal in Ames of making the national championship game. That haunted him for sure even though O State went on to beat Stanford in the Fiesta Bowl for O State’s only ever BCS bowl game win.
‘His’ O State team did quite well against Texas and has a current win streak of four games versus the Longhorns. Against OU…not so good as ‘Mike Gundy’s’ team is 2-12 against the Sooners.
This clearly miffed Boone Pickens. He was an extremely competitive guy. This one stat is probably what caused Pickens and Mike Gundy to have several public arguments with Gundy which caused the coach to flirt with Tennessee and Arkansas.
But in the end, they worked it out and their egos co-existed.
Who was more important to O State becoming a Top 25 program?
I would clearly say it was Boone. He gave O State financial viability. He gave them a stage to perform on. Other coaches beyond Mike Gundy would have had success with T Boone as the team owner. In a word—he leveled the playing field for his Cowboys.
O State in my mind just lost its most important alum. But one would think his legacy will live forever