Boone Pickens Stadium, Football stadium in Stillwater, United States.
Boone Pickens Stadium is a college football stadium on the Oklahoma State University campus in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Its seating bowl curves continuously around the field in tiers, with orange seats, white yard lines and numbers on the green turf, and an orange and black midfield logo. Two dark light towers rise above the upper rim, and a video screen with an orange frame is mounted on the left upper facade.
Oklahoma A&M began playing on the original Lewis Field in 1901; the field was renamed in 1914 for dean Lowery Laymon Lewis and moved to the current site for the 1919 season. A wooden 8,000-seat grandstand followed in 1920, and the field was turned east–west to blunt prevailing winds. It was renamed Boone Pickens Stadium in 2003, honoring alumnus T. Boone Pickens, whose $165 million gift funded the west end zone and a $260 million upgrade.
The field is named for Lowery Laymon Lewis, dean of veterinary medicine and acting president in 1914, whom students also honoured by dedicating their first yearbook to him. The annual Bedlam Series against the Oklahoma Sooners draws the crowds, and three US presidents have spoken here: Nixon in 1970, George H. W. Bush in 1990 and George W. Bush in 2006.
The stadium sits on the eastern part of the OSU campus at Western Hall of Fame Avenue, reached via Interstate 35 and Oklahoma State Highway 51. On game days the city provides free parking and shuttle buses to the venue. The east side is closed by the Athletics Center, which houses the Gallagher-Iba Arena, fitness rooms, a counseling office and a museum; the complex opened in 2000 at a cost of $55 million.
The facility runs east to west rather than in the typical north to south direction to reduce the impact of strong regional winds during games. This unusual orientation was a practical solution inspired by local weather conditions.
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