honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted at 12:08 p.m., Saturday, October 25, 2008

Colleges: Pickens says another OSU gift planned

Associated Press

AUSTIN, Texas — Texas oil tycoon and Oklahoma State University alum T. Boone Pickens said he plans to announce another major financial gift to his alma mater.

Speaking to an ABC sideline reporter today during OSU's football game against Texas in Austin, Pickens said he planned to announce details of the gift on Monday.

Pickens announced a record-setting gift of $165 million to OSU two years ago for athletic programs and then invested it in his BP Capital hedge fund.

But the fund dropped so low amid the national economic downturn that university officials won't say how much is left and the fancy athletic village it was supposed to pay for has been put on hold.

"The program is on schedule. We'll do just exactly what we said we would do," Pickens told ABC in the interview. "On Monday, I'll make another announcement, a major gift to the university."

Pickens said the money from his donation was in a fund with 300 other partners. That fund has sustained sizeable losses.

"We won't come out short. We will come out with more money than we went in with," Pickens told ABC.