Boone Pickens' Legacy


It is hard to fathom all that he has done for this school and community…

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Outside of the actual dollar amount stated you can’t even really quantify the overall impact. Just as important, he lobbied for many other wealthy donors to step up to the plate. AND the fact he made important academic donations. Although the Geology Dept can’t discuss that in their thread…:sunglasses:Amazing legacy for sure.

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I’m not planning on writing about it broadly, but I got invited to TBP’s funeral today and will be going over there around 1:30. I’ll drop notes and thoughts in here on who’s there, how it goes and whether we can sign Mike Holder to host a pod for us.

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The funeral today was awesome.

• Mike Holder was a pallbearer and as emotional as I’ve ever seen him. Him and his wife and the Hargis fam took the PJ back after the services. No reception.

• The speakers were great. Jerry J. was a little questionable, but he did tell a great story to close. Made you forget about the rest. Kinda the opposite of his former QB.

• Former players in attendance: Zach Crabtree, Evan Epstein, James Castleman. No Gundy.

• Reception was at Brook Hollow and was great. Good food, good drinks, good energy.

• I drove my 02 Silverado, which was embarrassing to valet given the economics of the room. BMW, BMW, Lexus, Lamborghini, Tesla, BMW, is that a Chevrolet?!

• Preacher said Boone reached out to him over the last year to talk about life, death, God and eternity. I found that interesting.

• One of the themes was how well Boone finished. How productive he was in his last 25 years. Everyone noted it. That was inspiring.

• The first speaker said he had dinner with Boone, Burns, Holder and others the night OSU won the B12 in 2011. He was from Texas Tech and said, “this is as close as I’ll get to a Big 12 trophy.”

• Iconic life, great day, thankful to be there for it.

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Does it feel like crowd funding for the Boone statue is some sort of odd test for the alumni base?

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I think that’s a really fair question. Not that the university is being manipulative but that they are interested in seeing ‘oh, how invested are you all REALLY in projects around campus’.

I read it more as a “you have to get donations to put up a statue of me because I’m not paying for my own darn statue.”

I think it’s a Boone test. Not an administrative test.

Interesting. That’s definitely a possibility too. Either way, it does feel kind of weird, right?