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University of Oklahoma Athletics
OU's Campaign For Sooner Sports Surpasses 100 Million Dollar Goal
September 08, 2002 | Football
It was announced at halftime of the OU vs. Alabama game that OU's Great Expectations: The Campaign for Sooner Sports has surpassed its $100 million goal to $102 million dollars. The fund raising includes private gifts and pledges and a gift from thousands of Sooner fans through a stadium improvement ticket surcharge.
The campaign was launched a little less than two years ago and includes improvements for several athletic facilities in addition to major renovation of the football stadium and basketball arena.
"Just as in academics, the University of Oklahoma seeks to create the highest standards of excellence for our athletic program," said OU President David L. Boren. "We are deeply grateful to our alumni and friends for making this exciting progress possible and helping to ensure that our athletic facilities allow our students-athletes to compete at the championship level."
The campaign's centerpiece is an extensive renovation of Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. Designed to provide OU's football program with a national championship-quality facility, the $75 million stadium project now under way will renovate all facility structures and amenities, replace current seating, and add new seating - including 2,200 club seats and 27 sky suites - to bring capacity to more than 80,000.
Brick and cast stone will be added to the stadium's exterior walls, giving the stadium a level of beauty in keeping with surrounding historic campus buildings. Renovations to the stadium are expected to be complete in time for the 2003 season.
"As Sooners, it has always been important for all of us to reflect the best of what both the University of Oklahoma and our great state has to offer," said Joseph R. Castiglione, Director of Athletics. "When we re-launched this capital campaign, we wanted to set the tone for an Expectation of Greatness from our entire intercollegiate athletics program. We believed our approach was unique in that it would address specific needs of all sports.
"Certainly, our fund raising initiatives can be viewed as part of our strategy to develop the best resources for our outstanding student-athletes and coaches," he continued. However, there is something more that occurs. It's the opportunity to engage people in the process or 'the journey' as we like to have it termed."
"We know that fulfilling our mission of Inspiring Champions and Preparing Leaders for Tomorrow must have a foundation upon which is built an appreciation of 'core values,' not the least of which is an appreciation for the strong characteristics of a team or family," Castiglione said. "When we celebrate every athletic achievement, we always remember the countless members of the Sooner family who helped make it happen. Surpassing what was termed a 'lofty' goal of $100 million isn't what we are celebrating today, Castiglione continued "It is the recognition of the fact so many people across this country are clearly demonstrating their support for the extraordinary journey our student-athletes, coaches and staff of this great university are experiencing."
"While we want to sincerely thank our many friends for helping surpass this incredible goal, our work is not yet finished. We still have a number of projects to develop and complete to help make our journey even more productive and enjoyable. We will continue to press on and help our program become even stronger."
In addition to the Memorial Stadium renovation and expansion, other projects include:
Thursday, June 25
Monday, June 22
Monday, May 18
Thursday, April 30
