Qualla: University of Oklahoma

University of Oklahoma: Introduction

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Andrew Goidell, CC BY 2.5. The first president of the University of Oklahoma ordered trees planted before the first building went up, because he could not visualize a treeless university seat. That instinct -- to build something beautiful before building anything practical -- has defined OU since December 18, 1890, when the Oklahoma Territorial legislature established a state university in Norman, seventeen years before Oklahoma even became a state. Norman residents donated land south of the railroad depot, and in August 1892, President David Ross Boyd arrived to enroll the first students. Classes began in the Rock Building in downtown Norman while the campus took shape, one sapling at a time.

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Image: Andrew Goidell | CC BY 2.5

University of Oklahoma: Cherokee Gothic and the Fire That Nearly Ended It All

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit various; University of Oklahoma, Public domain. On January 6, 1903, the university's only building burned to the ground, destroying early records and giving rival towns an opening to poach the institution. President Boyd and the faculty refused to flinch. Mathematics professor Frederick Elder captured the mood: "What do you ne...

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Image: various; University of Oklahoma | Public domain

University of Oklahoma: A Landmark for Civil Rights

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Michael Barera, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Bizzell Memorial Library, anchoring the South Oval with its handsome Cherokee Gothic facade, carries a significance far beyond its 4.7 million volumes and fifty incunabula. In 1948, G. W. McLaurin, a Black man, was denied admission to OU's graduate school. A court forced the ...

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Image: Michael Barera | CC BY-SA 4.0

University of Oklahoma: Sooner Born, Sooner Bred

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit User:Nmajdan, CC BY-SA 2.5. The nickname says everything about Oklahoma's competitive spirit. The Sooners take their name from settlers who sneaked into offered territory and staked claims before the starting gun of the 1889 land run -- rule-breakers rewarded for audacity. That ethos has produced forty-five...

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Image: User:Nmajdan | CC BY-SA 2.5

University of Oklahoma: From Naval Air Station to Weather Capital

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit GerritR, CC BY-SA 4.0. OU's north campus began life in the early 1940s as Naval Air Station Norman, an advanced flight training facility that could handle all but the largest bombers. After World War II, the university absorbed the installation, and naval aviator's wings still displayed at the terminal...

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Image: GerritR | CC BY-SA 4.0