The University of Oklahoma (OU) is a public research university in Norman, Oklahoma, United States. Founded in 1890, it had existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two territories became the state of Oklahoma. In Fall 2023, the university had 32,676 students enrolled, most at its main campus in Norman. Employing nearly 4,000 faculty members, the university offers 174 baccalaureate programs, 199 master’s programs, 101 doctoral programs, and 88 certificate programs.
The university is classified among “R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity”, with over $416 million in research expenditures across its three campuses in FY 2022. Its Norman campus has two prominent museums, the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, specializing in French Impressionism and Native American artwork, and the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, specializing in the natural history of Oklahoma.
The University of Oklahoma has won 43 team national championships, ranking the Sooners 13th all-time in NCAA team titles. OU also ranks 7th all-time in the number of NCAA Academic All-Americans with 215 athletes. The women’s softball team has won the national championship seven times: in 2000, 2013, and consecutively in 2016 and 2017 and in 2021, 2022, and 2023. The gymnastics teams have won a combined 18 national championships, with the men’s team winning eight in the last 15 years, including three consecutive titles from 2015 to 2017.
Beginning with the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, the Sooners have also produced 82 Olympians (5 coaches and 77 athletes) and collected 23 medals during this time, ranking OU among the top universities for producing Olympic athletes.
With the support of Governor George Washington Steele, on December 18, 1890, the Oklahoma Territorial legislature established three universities: the state university in Norman, the agricultural and mechanical college in Stillwater (later renamed Oklahoma State University) and a normal school in Edmond (later renamed University of Central Oklahoma). Oklahoma’s admission into the union in 1907 led to the renaming of the Norman Territorial University as the University of Oklahoma. Norman residents donated 407 acres (1.6 km2) of land for the university 0.5 miles (0.8 km) south of the Norman railroad depot. The university’s first president ordered the planting of trees before the construction of the first campus building because he “could not visualize a treeless university seat.” Landscaping remains important to the university.