The Gift That Keeps On Re-Giving at OSU

Posted on October 30, 2008
Filed Under News, The Daily Prereq | By Jessica Dye

T. Boone Pickens shattered records in 2006 with a $165 million donation to Oklahoma State University’s sports program. At the time, the fact that the giant nest egg was invested in Pickens’ hedge fund, BP Capital, seemed like no big deal–after all, hedge funds were hot, and the investment ballooned to $300 million in no time. But then the market started falling faster than frat boys on a Jaegermeister factory tour, and the fund is currently a billion dollars down. So what has become of Pickens’ OSU nest egg, now that the nest has been razed?

According to the Wall Street Journal’s Wealth Report blog, Pickens is pulling $125 million of the original gift out of the fund and is turning the cash back over to OSU. That’s good news for OSU, which was forced to halt construction on an elaborate new sports village due to the market losses. Pickens has also pledged an additional $63 million to ensure the completion of OSU’s upgrades. OSU is hardly the only school dealing with market fallout. And even though Pickens’ self-investment might have seemed like a conflict of interest, at least Pickens is taking steps to ensure OSU gets its pledge money. No matter what you say about crazy ol’ T. Boone, at least he doesn’t let a little market apocalypse stop him from supporting his alma mater.

  • Share/Save/Bookmark

Comments

One Response to “The Gift That Keeps On Re-Giving at OSU”

  1. » The Gift That Keeps On Re-Giving at OSU on October 30th, 2008 2:31 pm

    […] That’s good news for OSU, which has had to halt construction on an elaborate new sports village due to the market losses. Pickens has also pledged an additional $63 million to ensure the completion of OSU’s upgrades. The Gift That Keeps On Re-Giving at OSU […]

Leave a Reply




Security Code: