Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium - A 21st Century Stadium

A 21st Century Stadium

By 1999, the 75-year-old stadium was showing its age. Except for the turf and lighting enhancements, no substantial upgrade of the stadium had occurred since the press box was built 25 years earlier, in 1975. The OU College of Architecture was housed under the west stands and in the north end zone, until other facilities became available in 1990. The artificial turf on Owen Field had literally become threadbare before its replacement in 1981; it is possible that the poor condition of the Superturf, prior to its 1994 replacement, contributed to a crash of the Sooner Schooner during a 1993 game against Colorado. The east side of the stadium still had the original dirt flooring underneath the stands, making for a cloudy, dusty walk into the student and visitor seating sections. Restrooms were old and inadequate; paint was peeling off external walls and the areas under the stands (the east side in particular) were dark and smelled like dust.

Plans began in 1997 to upgrade most athletic department facilities, beginning with a five-year fundraising campaign. Then, unexpectedly, the Sooners won the BCS National Championship for the 2000 season. The University began to get more freshman applications than it could house due in large part to the football team's success. Along with other campus improvements such as more and better student housing, the refurbishment and expansion plan for the stadium was accelerated to be ready by the beginning of the 2003 season.

In 2002, every seat in the stadium was replaced and the north end zone scoreboard was dismantled in preparation for replacement. From 2003 to 2004, the entire video and audio systems were replaced and new video scoreboards were placed at both end zones. The west side, long ignored except for the press box construction in 1975, received restroom and concession improvements. Most importantly, a street running east of the east stands was moved to allow for the construction of an upper deck with club seating for 2,500 and 27 suites on the east side, which increased the capacity of the stadium to its current figure of 82,112. The renovation, led by architecture firms 360 Architecture and HOK Sport, cost $54 million.

The north and west entries were renovated to match the Cherokee Gothic look of most campus buildings, and other cosmetic enhancements were made to the press box. A reflecting pool just north of the stadium, filled in during the 1949 north end zone expansion, was restored in 2000. A new war memorial, listing the names of all Sooners killed while serving in the U.S. armed forces, was placed next to the reflecting pool in 2003. The Barry Switzer Center, under the south end zone, was opened in 1999 and houses the football locker room, video rooms, football coaches offices, the football conditioning center, a state-of-the-art sports medicine facility, and the Legends Lobby, a large museum dedicated to the history of Oklahoma football.

The basketball coaches' offices are located in the Lloyd Noble Center, but the rest of the OU athletic coaches' offices, the Athletic Director's office, and the OU Athletics administrators' offices are located in the north end of the stadium in the McClendon Center.

$12 million toward the $75 million cost of the stadium project was donated by Christy Gaylord Everest, current publisher of The Oklahoman and daughter of Edward K. Gaylord, in 2002. The stadium was renamed to its current name in honor of this gift. (The Gaylords donated a total of $50 million to the University around this time, including $22 million for a new building to house the College of Journalism.) In 2009, the stadium welcomed The Black Eyed Peas and U2 as a part of the 360 Tour.