STILLWATER, Okla.—T. Boone Pickens had outsize ambitions when he donated $165 million to transform athletics at his alma mater, Oklahoma State University, which had long played second string in football to the rival University of Oklahoma Sooners.

The colorful oil man led excited school officials on a spending spree that included gussying up the redbrick football stadium with luxury suites and razing 200 homes near campus to make way for an athletic village that was to feature a baseball stadium, indoor track and tennis complex.

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