Wallpaper Football

Press box construction was completed in 1980 at a cost of $1.8 million. The press box has seating for more than 200 members of the print media, with separate levels for radio/television broadcasters, photographers and VIP seating on the first level capable of handling 300. A lighting system for night games was installed in time for the 1985 season and cost approximately $750,000.

Prior to the 1950 season, 10,600 seats were added to the north stands, increasing capacity to 39,000 (including temporary endzone bleachers). After the 1971 season the cinder track was removed, lowering the field 12 feet and making the space between the field and the stadium retaining walls among the smallest in college athletics. Twenty rows of permanent seats were also added to both sides of the stadium. This expansion, including complete conversion to an artificial turf playing surface, cost $2.5 million and was financed through private donations. The university planned to build a horseshoe-shaped stadium, similar to Ohio State University's Ohio Stadium, in the 1920s to be called War Memorial Stadium. These plans were scrapped before any construction of the proposed stadium started, and the first addition to Lewis Field came in 1924 with the first steel and concrete portion of the current stadium built on the south side. During the 1929–1930 seasons, 8,000 permanent seats were built on the north side for an overall capacity of 13,000. In 1947 the south stands were increased from 20 to 53 rows and capacity climbed to nearly 30,000. For the first time, a permanent press box was then added.

The school built a permanent 8,000-seat grandstand—roughly corresponding to the lower level of the current facility's north grandstand—in 1920. The stadium originally was positioned in the traditional north-south direction, but was reoriented east-west to avoid the strong prevailing winds. It remains one of a handful of major stadiums in the United States with goals at the east and west ends. Because of this, the sun becomes an advantage to the team defending the west end zone during sunny afternoon games, because the team defending the east goal has to look directly into the bright sunlight.

With the resurgence of Cowboy football sparked by the 2001 victory over the Oklahoma Sooners in the annual Bedlam Series game and the subsequent 2002 Houston Bowl season, interest grew for a major overhaul of Lewis Field. An ambitious fund-raising project for the renovation dubbed "The Next Level" became the flagship effort of the Oklahoma State athletic department.

Boone Pickens Stadium (previously known as Lewis Field) has been home to the Oklahoma State University Cowboys football team in rudimentary form since 1913, and as a complete stadium since 1920. The facility is the oldest football stadium in the Big 12 Conference but was left largely neglected and enjoyed only modest renovations throughout its near-century of existence.

Lewis Field was officially renamed Boone Pickens Stadium during a halftime ceremony at the 2003 football game versus the University of Wyoming. However, the playing surface is still known as Lewis Field. The stadium's name was changed to honor OSU alumnus T. Boone Pickens, a Texas oilman and entrepreneur who founded Mesa Petroleum Company in 1956 and served as its CEO from 1956 to 1996. Pickens donated $165 million overall to the university, the largest single donation for athletics to an institution of higher education in American history, to create an "athletic village" on campus, but the construction of the village was canceled due to the economy's downturn.