2019 Game 11 Opponent Information: University of Oklahoma Overview

University of Oklahoma: The University of Oklahoma (OU) is a public research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it had existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two became the state of Oklahoma. Approximately 30,000 students attend the university. David Lyle Boren, a former U.S. Senator and Oklahoma Governor, has served as President of the University of Oklahoma since 1994.

With the support of Governor George Washington Steele, on December 18, 1890, the Oklahoma Territorial legislature established three universities: the state university in Norman, the agricultural and mechanical college in Stillwater (later renamed Oklahoma State University) and a normal school in Edmond (later renamed University of Central Oklahoma). Oklahoma's admission into the union in 1907 led to the renaming of the Norman Territorial University as the University of Oklahoma. Norman residents donated 407 acres of land for the university .5 miles south of the Norman railroad depot. The university's first president ordered the planting of numerous trees before the construction of the first campus building because he "could not visualize a treeless university seat." Landscaping remains important to the university to this day.

During World War II, OU was one of 131 colleges and universities nationally that took part in the V-12 Navy College Training Program, which offered students a path to a Navy commission. The north campus and airfield were built in the early 1940s as Naval Air Station Norman. In the post–World War II demobilization, the university received the installation. Naval aviator's wings displayed at the entrance to the terminal commemorates this airfield's Naval past.

The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center's (OUHSC) main campus is located at the Oklahoma Health Center in Oklahoma City, while a secondary Health Sciences campus is in Tulsa. About 3,500 students enroll in one of the seven colleges at the Health Center. OUHSC is one of only four academic health centers in the nation with seven professional colleges. The 19 buildings that make up the OUHSC campus that occupies a 15-block area in Oklahoma City near the Oklahoma State capitol. Surrounding these buildings are an additional 20 health-related buildings some of which are owned by the University of Oklahoma. With approximately 600 students and 600 residents and fellows training in specialties and subspecialties of medicine, the College of Medicine is the largest component of the Health Sciences Center. The major clinical facilities on campus are the OU Medical Center hospital complex and they include The Children's Hospital, the OU Physicians clinics and the Oklahoma City Veterans Administration Medical Center.

Located on OU's Norman campus are two prominent museums, the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, specializing in French Impressionism and Native American artwork, and the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, specializing in the natural history of Oklahoma.

The Museum of Art was founded in 1936. The museum opened with over 2,500 items on display and was originally located on campus in Jacobson Hall. Mr. and Mrs. Fred Jones of Oklahoma City donated money for a permanent building in 1971 and the building was named in honor of their son who died in a plane crash during his senior year at the University of Oklahoma. Since then, the museum has acquired many renowned works of Native American art and, in 2000, received the Weitzenhoffer Collection of French Impressionism, which includes works by Degas, Gauguin, Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec, Van Gogh and Vuillard. As of 2011, the museum had over 65,000 square feet filled with over 8,000 items.

The Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History specializes in the history of the people and animals that have inhabited Oklahoma over the last 300 million years. Since its founding in 1899, the museum has acquired over 5,000,000 objects. In 2000, a new building of nearly 200,000 square space was opened to house the ever-expanding museum.

The campus has a distinctive architecture, with buildings designed in a unique Cherokee Gothic style. The style has many features of the Gothic era but has also mixed the designs of local Native American tribes from Oklahoma. This term was coined by the renowned American architect Frank Lloyd Wright when he visited the campus. The University has built over a dozen buildings in the Cherokee Gothic style.

In September 2008, it was announced that the University of Oklahoma's main campus would be entirely powered by wind by 2013. In February of 2013, it was announced that OU was receiving all of its purchased energy from renewable sources, under an agreement by which OU purchases all of its energy from OG&E, which in return constructed the OU Spirit Wind Farm, a 10,000 acre development. The farm features 44 wind turbines with a generating capacity of 101 megawatts (MW), which is enough electricity to power the equivalent of 25,000 homes. OU receives about 85 percent of the renewable energy certificates (RECs) from the wind farm. The university generates the remaining 15 percent of its power on campus. The university has two natural gas-fueled power plants.

Significant events on the campus have included:

• The African American Civil Rights Movement began a new era as the university began policies against racial discrimination and segregation after legal challenges and court cases outlawed discrimination. The school's Bizzell Memorial Library has been designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark in commemoration of the cases of G. W. McLaurin, a black man who was denied admission to graduate school in 1948. It was then state law that no school should serve both white and black students, but there were few or no separate graduate programs available for blacks. A court case forced the Board of Regents to vote to admit McLaurin, but he was directed to study in a separated area within the law library and to be allowed to lunch only in a segregated area. The National Association for Advancement of Colored People brought the case to the U.S. Supreme court in McLaurin vs. Oklahoma State Board of Regents. In 1950, the court overturned the university's policy for segregation at the graduate school level. The case was an important precedent for the more famous and sweeping 1954 case of Brown v. Board of Education, which disallowed "separate but equal" policy at all school levels.

• The 2005 University of Oklahoma bombing occurred on October 1, 2005, at approximately 7:30 pm (Central) when a bomb went off near George Lynn Cross Hall on Van Vleet Oval. The blast took place less than 200 yards west of the football stadium, where 84,501 spectators were attending a game. The bomber, OU student Joel "Joe" Henry Hinrichs III, was killed in the explosion; no one else was killed. The FBI and local authorities concluded in 2006 that Hinrichs acted alone and had no assistance from terrorist groups, but could not prove or disprove allegations that Hinrichs intended to enter the packed stadium and kill football fans and himself.

• In March 2015, the University of Oklahoma shut down the Oklahoma Kappa chapter of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity when a video surfaced that showed members singing a racist chant while riding on a bus. Sigma Alpha Epsilon shut down the chapter on March 8, 2015, and University of Oklahoma president Boren gave members two days to leave the fraternity house. He also expelled two students who he said "played a leadership role" in the incident, creating "a hostile learning environment for others."

Billy Sims

Notable University of Oklahoma Alumni: Notable Alumni include many athletes that have excelled at the collegiate, professional and Olympic levels, including: Blake Griffin, Sam Bradford, Lee Roy Selmon, Roy Williams, Tommie Harris, Billy Sims, Wayman Tisdale, Joe Washington, Darrell Royal, Steve Owens, Adrian Peterson, Matthew Lane, Anthony Kim, Danny Hodge, Jonathan Horton, Jermaine Gresham, Brian Bosworth, Josh Heupel, Adrian Peterson. In addition, many state politicians have graduated from Oklahoma, including current OU President David Boren; Brian Crain; David Walters; Carl Albert; A.S. Mike Monroney; Jeff Cloud (Oklahoma); Frank Keating; Dan Boren; Tom Coburn; Brad Carson and former Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry. Current New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez is an OU alumna. Other notable alumni include: best-selling author Jim George; shuttle astronaut Shannon Lucid; Apollo 13 astronaut Fred Haise; Oklahoma Supreme Court Justice Steven W. Taylor; mutual fund manager Michael F. Price; 2006 Miss America Jennifer Berry; former WNBA player and ESPN commentator Stacey Dales; Denver Broncos owner Pat Bowlen; actors Van Heflin, Dennis Weaver, Ed Harris and James Garner; country recording artist Kellie Coffey; actress Olivia Munn; ESPN SportsCenter anchor Dari Nowkhah; actor and musician Christian Kane; PGA Golf Professional Anthony Kim; David Gates, musician and lead singer for Bread; Dick Armey, former U.S. House Majority Leader; J.C. Watts, former U.S. Representative; Kevin Bales, founder of Free the Slaves; Clayton Bennett, majority owner of the NBA Oklahoma City Thunder; James M. Flinchum, editor-in-chief of the former Wyoming State Tribune; Roy Furr, founder of Furr's grocery store and cafeteria chain; Tom Love, owner, founder, and chairman of Love's Travel Stops and Country Stores; Lawrence G. Rawl, former Chairman and CEO of Exxon; Slim Richey, jazz guitarist; and Helen Walton, widow of Sam Walton.

University of Oklahoma Traditions:  Here are some traditions observed by University of Oklahoma students and alumni:

Athletic Colors: Oklahoma's scolors are crimson and cream. These colors were selected in 1895. The colors were her own personal choice and she decided on them after viewing many color samples and materials. After her decision, the colors were brought in front of the student body who enthusiastically approved of her selections. In recent years, red and white have sometimes replaced crimson and cream.

Nickname: Sooners is the nickname. During the land run, Sooners was  a nickname given to early settlers the who sneaked into the offered territory and staked claims illegally before they were officially allowed to.

Mascots: Oklahoma has had several mascots. The first was a stray dog named Mex, which was found in Mexico during the Mexican Revolution by Mott Keys. Keys took the dog back to Hollis, Oklahoma, when he completed his duty. When Keys enrolled in the University, he took Mex with him to Norman. Keys landed a job with the football team. Mex's main duty during games was to keep stray dogs from roaming the field. He wore a red sweater with an "O" on the side. Mex died of old age on April 30, 1928. The campus was closed and classes were canceled on the day of his funeral. He was buried in a casket somewhere under the stadium.

Never an official mascot, "Little Red" began appearing at games in 1953. He was an Indian who wore red tights, beech cloth and a war bonnet. In April 1970, Little Red was banished by Oklahoma president John Herbert Hollomon, Jr. The student court issued a temporary restraining order to keep Little Red from appearing at Sooner games. Despite this order, Palmer showed up as Little Red for the 1970 season opener where he was met with cheers. When Palmer was drafted after the 1971 season, no one showed for tryouts to replace him.

A Sooner Schooner and Sooner and Boomer are the mascots today.  The Sooner Schooner is a Conestoga wagon, similar to the primary method of transportation used by early settlers in Oklahoma. The Schooner is driven by two white ponies named Boomer and Sooner. In 2005, the university also introduced two costumed mascots named Boomer and Sooner to serve as mascots for football games and events that do not permit a covered wagon.

Marching Band: The University of Oklahoma marching band is called the "Pride of Oklahoma." The band, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2004, consists of 311 student musicians and dancers. A smaller "pep band," which usually consists of 100 members, travels to every away football game. In 2007, The Pride of Oklahoma marched in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, making it one of only a few bands to have marched in the Rose and Macy's Parades.

The Pride was founded in 1904 as a pep band to play at Sooner football games. In the early years of the university, the band was composed mostly of Norman residents and was disbanded every year after football season.

In 1987, the Pride was awarded the prestigious Sudler Trophy, the equivalent of the Heisman Trophy for university bands and an award no band may be awarded twice. As of 2006, the Sudler Trophy has been awarded 25 times; the Pride was the sixth recipient of the award. 

Songs and Chants: The official fight song of the Sooners is "Boomer Sooner." This song is played by the band after touchdowns, field goals, after significant plays, and when the team or crowd need a boost of energy. The phrase "Boomer Sooner" refers to Land Run of 1889, in where the land around the modern university was settled. Boomers were people who campaigned for the lands to be opened (or tried to enter the lands) before passage of the Indian Appropriations Act of 1889. Sooners were land thieves who settled before the lands were officially opened, giving them an unfair advantage on finding, fencing, and claiming farm land. If the charge of early entry was proven, they would lose their claimed land. Listen to Boomer Sooner: here  

"OK Oklahoma" is another school song that is played after an extra point and when the Sooner Schooner rolls onto the field. Listen: here 

The official Alma Mater is "OU Chant." Listen: here

Other tunes frequently heard at OU football games include the 1953 state son "Oklahoma" and an alternate fight song titled "Fight for OU." Oklahoma is the title song from the Broadway musical "Oklahoma!," named for the setting of the musical play. Listen: here 

RUF/NEKS and RUF/NEKS Lis Sis: The purpose of the RUF/NEKS and the RUF/NEKS Lis Sis  is to support the athletic teams at the University of Oklahoma by stressing loyalty and by generating crowd enthusiasm. The paddles that the RUF/NEKS carry became a tradition in the 1920's. The RUF/NEK Lil' Sis also carry red & white paddles. The paddles are carried as a sign of tradition and pride.  The Lil' Sis swing their paddles off the Sooner  Schooner when they ride during home football games. The RUF/NEKS are the caretakers of the Sooner Schooner and Boomer and Sooner. The Sooner Schooner takes a run around the north end zone each time the OU football team scores.  In 1990 the Lil' Sis began riding the Schooner during the second half of home football games. RUF/NEKS, the Lil' Sis, and the RUF/NEK Queen are the only individuals to ride the Sooner Schooner.

The Spoonholder: The oldest tradition on campus is known as the Spoonholder. It was believed that if you kissed your date in the  Spoonholder, you would soon be married. The Spoonholder brought many romantic evenings to countless Sooners between 1910 to 1983, when it was dismantled during campus renovations. Recently, the Class of ’49 joined forces with the Class of ’99 to fund the return of the cherished campus landmark. The Spoonholder is in the North Oval.

The Clock Tower: Smart students on campus avoid the clock tower, located by the new wing of Bizzell Library. Legend has it that if an OU student walks underneath the clock, he/she is cursed and won’t graduate in the standard four years.

Paint Texas: Each year before the OU/Texas football game, the RUF/NEK and Lil' Sis organizations join forces to paint the sidewalk in front of Dale Hall on campus. This tradition began in the 1980s.  The sidewalk reads: "BEAT THE HELL OUT OF texas."