I wasn’t sure where to place an OSU thought I’ve been having since last week… So thought I’d start a thread to share those thoughts in.
So here’s that thought… I love everything that Boone Pickens did for Oklahoma State. As Seth wrote, his donation changed everything for our beloved University. I had an opportunity to meet the man three times. Twice in Stillwater and once in his office in Dallas. "I like the way you carry yourself and you’re passionate about what you’re selling… “But boy, I don’t care one bit about the Dallas Stars. Call me when you’re selling something I want.”… He was encouraging and gave great feedback. Did amazing things for my school and my city.
That said… The “Boone Pickens State” stuff really frustrates me to no end. I’ve NEVER liked it. I understand that he gave enough to essentially become an owner. I understand that he earned all of that… But I’ve always felt that Oklahoma State University is so much bigger than Boone… And I think he would’ve agreed with that.
It’s completely irrational I’ll admit that but for me it just seems belittling. Like we’re not worthy of our full name. Like you really don’t have the time to say “Oklahoma State”? You don’t see anyone else being abbreviated. Oklahoma is never “Okie U” or whatever. Plus it seems that when people outside of Oklahoma say “okie” it’s more derogatory. Also, Kirk Herbstreit said it so that speaks for itself.
And now ends my “get off my lawn” segment of the day.
I’m with you on ‘Okie State’. You’d never, ever hear anyone call the Sooners the ‘Okie Sooners’. Now, I’m fine with phrases like OK State or Oak State because those are just truncations of the actual state name, but Okie just had…well, like you said. It sounds like a derogatory nickname.
I don’t necessarily disagree but I do see other schools getting abbreviated all the time… NC State. VA Tech. Cal. Wazzu.
I think embracing an abbreviation that takes our name from five syllables to two would be a good thing for us from a marketing standpoint. Especially since “OSU” is basically synonymous with Ohio State.
OU doesn’t get abbreviated to Okie U or anything like that because they own “OU” exclusively… Except for in Athens, Ohio.
Yeah but you would never rush to monitize on somebody you’ve never met’s death…
Also, I would rather discuss the whole “Boone Pickens State” thing in general. Like it’s lobbying to change the name of the school. I remember in 2007 when the O"Colly’s April Fool’s day thing was to write up an announcement that the school was changing names… I understood that it was a joke, but it just rubbed me the wrong way.
I got a whole new understanding of the meaning behind “Okie” after reading the grapes of wrath. I know for some people in my grandparents generation they felt it was as bad to be called that as using the n word.
“Okie from Muskogee” was a massive hit in the state with our grandparents generation though… They didn’t realize that it was satire and that Merle was making fun of them… But still.
I think saying “it’s as bad as the n word” minimizes the n word a lot… Wouldn’t recommend.
Not saying that I felt that way, just some from the depression era did that I spoke too. Of course the n word does seem to be minimized if your skin is dark enough anyways so…
They can’t. OSU administration hates the guy who runs that account. They’ve sent him a cease and desist, tried to reach an amicable agreement, etc. nothing. The guy who is behind it all is a low-life.
It’s not surprising Gundy is getting mentioned, or getting odds, to be head coach at Michigan or USC. He’s young, we’re not a blue-blood, and he’s been successful. Also his agent (is it Jimmy Sexton?) is super aggressive getting his clients pay raised so it’d almost be malfeasance if he didn’t float Gundy’s name just to keep him ‘in demand.’ But I would be really surprised to see Gundy leave. I don’t think he would want to do the work to get a blue blood up and running. Which, hey, God Bless Mike for having a good work/life balance. But to get USC or Michigan back to National Championship levels is going to take 2-3 years of 80 hour work weeks for 52 weeks a year. I don’t see that in his DNA.