T. Boone Pickens made his fortune in the oil and gas industries, but he saved his greatest passion for Oklahoma State University and its sports programs.
“He was a man of sports. His love for competing frankly was unmatched,” said Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, one of Pickens’ close friends.
“He wanted to beat your shooting quail, had a lot of (Tony) Romo in him, wanted to beat you flipping nickels. He was a natural-born competitor,” Jones said. “So much of the things he accomplished were not about the dollar but about the competitiveness and the game that he was involved in.”
The tycoon, corporate raider and philanthropist died Wednesday at the age of 91 — 68 years after he graduated from what was then Oklahoma A&M with a degree in geology. Pickens spokesman Jay Rosser said in a statement on the Pickens website that he died of natural causes. In 2017, Pickens suffered head injuries and strokes after a fall.
Despite living in Texas, Pickens maintained strong ties to his alma mater, donating over a half billion dollars to OSU that was nearly equally divided between athletics and academics.
His gift to Oklahoma State athletics is among the largest to any university’s sports program in collegiate history. Since he provided much of the funding for a 2009 renovation, the Cowboys now play their home football games at Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy wrote on Twitter that it would have been difficult for the Cowboys to have climbed as high as they have without Pickens.
“He came to talk to the team a few times,” former OSU and now Cowboys tight end Blake Jarwin told USA TODAY Sports. “(I was) starstruck in the moment that, oh, this is T. Boone Pickens talking to me and I’m a walk on at Oklahoma State!
“That meant a lot. Then after last season, he reached out after last season and we had lunch one day. Then a few OSU guys got to go hang out with him for a weekend at his ranch … Had chicken tenders and biscuits and gravy. It was awesome.”
The Oklahoma State football team will pay tribute to Pickens with a helmet decal players will wear for the rest of the season.
Oklahoma State has announced it will hold a public “celebration of life” ceremony at Gallagher-Iba Arena at a date to be determined.
The Dallas Morning News reported that Pickens wasn’t a billionaire at the time of his death because he had already given away more than $1 billion to philanthropic and educational causes.
“He was the true risk-reward guy,” Jones recalled. “With his left hand he’d be picking up the phone to take those risks and … he was giving it away with his right hand faster than he could make it.”
Pickens often said much the same thing about himself. “I like making money. I like giving money away. Giving money is not as fun as making it, but it’s a close second.”
Contributing: Jori Epstein