In 1907, Oklahoma entered statehood, fostering changes in the political atmosphere of the state. Up until this point, Oklahoma's Republican tendencies changed with the election of Oklahoma's first governor, the Democratic Charles N. Haskell. Since the inception of the university, a religious bout had brewed between different groups on campus. Early in the university's existence, many professors were Presbyterian, as was Boyd. Under pressure, Boyd eventually hired several Baptists and Southern Methodists. The Presbyterians and Baptists got along but the Southern Methodists conflicted with the administration. Two notable Methodists, Rev. Nathaniel Lee Linebaugh and Professor Ernest Taylor Bynum, were critics of Boyd and activists in Haskell's election campaign. When Haskell took office, he fired many of the Republicans at the university, including President Boyd.

The campus expanded over the next several decades and by 1926, the university encompassed 167 acres (0.7 km2). Development of South Oval allowed for the southern expansion of the campus. The University built a new library on the oval's north end in 1929. Then President Bizzell was able to get the Oklahoma legislature to approve $500,000 for the new library up from their original offer of $200,000.

OU's enrollment, like many universities, sharply declined during World War II. Enrollment in 1945 dropped to 3,769, from its Pre-World War II high of 6,935 in 1939. Many infrastructure changes occurred at the university during this time. The southern portion of south campus in the vicinity of Constitution Avenue, still known to long-time Norman residents as 'South Base', was originally built as an annex to Naval Air Station Norman. It contained mostly single-story frame buildings used for classrooms and military housing; most were severely deteriorated by the late 1980s and were demolished in the 1990s to make room for redevelopment. The Jimmie Austin University of Oklahoma Golf Course was built as a U.S. Navy recreational facility. The north campus and the airfield were built in the early 1940s as Naval Air Station Norman. The station served mainly an advanced flight training mission and could handle all but the largest bombers. A large earthen mound east of Interstate 35 and north of Robinson Street, colloquially known as 'Mount Williams', was used as a gunnery (the mound has since been removed to make way for a commercial development). The university in the post-World War II demobilization received the installation. Naval aviator's wings displayed at the entrance to the terminal commemorates this airfield's Naval past.

After the war, enrollment surged. By 1965, enrollment had risen over 450% to 17,268 causing housing shortages. In the mid 1960s, the administration completed construction of three new 12-story dormitories located immediately south of the South Oval. In addition to these three towers, an apartment complex was completed around this time that housed married students, which was an issue following World War II. These apartments are now Kraettli Apartments.

George Lynn Cross took over as President of the University in 1943, two years after the U.S. entered World War II. He remained at the helm until 1968, 25 years later, becoming the longest serving president in history of the university. Five more presidents would serve in the next 25 years after Cross stepped down. In 1994, the university finally hired a long term president.

Since David Boren became Oklahoma's president in 1994, the University of Oklahoma system has had an increase in new developments throughout including: the purchase of 60 acres (0.2 km2) for OU-Tulsa, the new Gaylord Hall, Price Hall, the ExxonMobil Lawrence G. Rawl Engineering Practice Facility (under construction), Devon Energy Hall (under construction), the Wagner Student Academic Services Center (under construction), the Research and Medical Clinic, the expansions of the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, and the National Weather Center.

The Oklahoma Mesonet, a state-of-the-art network of environmental monitoring stations that is an OU-Oklahoma State University partnership, won a special award from the American Meteorological Society (AMS), the nation's leading professional society for those in the atmospheric and related sciences. In 2001, OK-FIRST was recognized as one of the nation’s five most innovative government programs by Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and their Innovations in American Government program.

Sooners Athletics:
The University of Oklahoma features 17 varsity sports teams. Both men's and women's teams are called the Sooners, a nickname given to individuals who participated in the land rushes which initially opened the Oklahoma Indian Territory to non-native settlement by entering early and hiding out until the legal time of entry in order to lay quick (and, by definition, illegal) claim to some of the most choice homesteads. They participate in the NCAA's Division I-A, in the South Division of the Big 12 Conference. The University's current athletic director is Joe Castiglione.

In 2002, Oklahoma was ranked as the 3rd best college sports program in America by Sports Illustrated.

Varsity Sports:
The University of Oklahoma was a charter member of the Southwest Athletic Conference (SWC) during its formation in 1914. Five years later, in 1919, OU left the SWC and joined the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association. In 1928, this conference split, and OU remained aligned with the teams that formed the Big Six Conference. Over the next 30 years, more schools were added and the conference underwent several name changes, incrementing the number each time up to the Big Eight Conference where it remained until 1996. Four more universities were added then and the name was changed one more time to its current form: the Big 12 Conference.

Football:
The Oklahoma Sooners football program is a college football team that represents the University of Oklahoma (variously "Oklahoma" or "OU"). The team is currently a member of the Big 12 Conference, which is a Division I Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The program began in 1895 and is the most successful program of the modern era (post World War II) with 524 wins and a winning percentage of .761 since 1945. The program has seven national championships, 41 conference championships, 144 All-Americans, and four Heisman Trophy winners. In addition, the school has had five coaches and 17 players inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame and holds the record for the longest winning streak in Division I-FBS history with 47 straight victories. The team is currently coached by Bob Stoops and home games are played at the Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman, Oklahoma.

Men's Basketball:
The men's basketball team is highly successful and rose to national prominence since the early 80’s with head coach Billy Tubbs and three time All-American power forward Wayman Tisdale. It currently plays in the Lloyd Noble Center, which came to be known as the house Alvan Adams built and Tisdale filled. While the team has never won a national championship, it ranks second in most tournament wins without a championship behind Illinois. The team played in the 1988 national championship game but lost to Kansas, despite having beaten the Jayhawks three times earlier in the season, including the Big 8 Championship Game in Kansas City. The program has won a combined twenty regular-season and tournament conference championships.

The Sooners headed into the 2005-06 season ranked #6 in the AP preseason poll, led by Taj Gray, Kevin Bookout, Terrell Everett, and David Godbold, but had a disappointing early season. After the emergence of Michael Neal as a potential star, the Sooners salvaged a #3 seed in the Big 12 Conference Tournament but lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

On March 29, 2006, Kelvin Sampson left the University of Oklahoma to become the head basketball coach at Indiana University. 13 days later, on April 11, 2006, Oklahoma Athletic Director Joe Castiglione named Jeff Capel III the new head coach. Capel encountered trouble in his first few months as several players who had been recruited by Sampson backed out of their commitments. The Sooners looked to continue a streak of 12 consecutive postseason tournament appearances in 2006-2007, but were disappointed when they did not receive a bid for either the NCAA Tournament or the NIT.

Men's Gymnastics:
The men's gymnastics program at OU is headed by coach Mark Williams. It has won five of the last seven NCAA Men's Gymnastics championships, winning the title in 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006 and 2008 (they finished second behind Penn State in 2004 and 2007). Only Oklahoma and Penn State have won the NCAA title since 2000, with the exception of Ohio State in 2001. They won the 2006 title with very little experience on the team as 50% of the members were freshmen and just 21% were upperclassmen (seven freshmen, four sophomores, one junior, and two seniors). Teams from OU also won national championships in 1977, 1978, and 1991.

Gymnastics began at the school in 1902. The program folded in 1917 when the original coach left. The program was revived in 1965 with the new coach, Russ Porterfield having to beg students to join the squad. Within 6 years, OU had its first winning season. OU's next coach, Paul Ziert, turned the program into one of national prominence. He led OU to two national championships in 1977 and 1978. One of Ziert's athletes, Greg Buwick, would replace him as head coach in 1980 and would lead the team to its third national title in 1991. Buwick's assistant of 12 years, Mark Williams, took over the head coaching position in 2000 and has continued OU's tradition of gymnastics excellence. OU has produced more Nissen Award winners than any other university and is the only school to have back-to-back Nissen Award winners.

Baseball:
The Oklahoma Baseball tradition is long, proud and storied, with two National Championships in 1951 and 1994, along with numerous All-Americans. Their home field is L. Dale Mitchell Baseball Park, named after famed player Dale Mitchell. The current coach is Sunny Golloway. The baseball program was a source of recent controversy when the head coach, Larry Cochell, resigned after making racially insensitive remarks about one of the players on the team.

During the 2005-2006 season, the Sooners were given a home regional at L. Dale Mitchell Park and were named the #1 seed. They beat the University of Houston, Texas Christian University, and Wichita State University to win the regional and advanced to a Super Regional where they were defeated by Rice University in a best-of-three series. Oregon State University went on to win the College World Series that year.

Prior to 2006, the Sooners hosted regionals at minor league parks in Oklahoma City, first All Sports Stadium and then AT&T Bricktown Ballpark. Scheduling conflicts with the Oklahoma Redhawks, the Class AAA affiliate of the Texas Rangers, led OU to bid for future regionals at its on-campus stadium.

Women's Basketball:
OU Women's Basketball began during the 1974-75 academic year. Funding was lax, as the school provided $42,000 to fund six new women's sports. The program was an afterthought with many years of below average performance. In March 1990, Oklahoma officials released a statement saying that the women's basketball program was to be dropped. Many people voiced their complaints and eight days later, OU reinstated the program. At the time, the average attendance per game was only 65 people. It wasn't until 1996 when OU hired local high school basketball coach, Sherri Coale, that the team became something Sooners would be proud of. As with the Men's team, they call Lloyd Noble Center home.

The program gained national prominence during the 2002 post-season when they advanced to the National Title game and lost to the University of Connecticut Huskies. In the 2005-06 season, the Sooners were led by their coach Sherri Coale and the nationally-known sophomore twins Courtney and Ashley Paris, daughters of former San Francisco 49ers offensive tackle Bubba Paris, to the third round of the national tournament. The team also won the Big 12 regular season championship (with a 16-0 conference record) and the Big 12 Tournament. They are the first Big 12 women's basketball team to remain undefeated throughout conference play.

Wrestling:
The wrestling program is the fourth most decorated in college wrestling, having won seven national championships in 1936, 1951, 1952, 1957, 1960, 1963 and 1974. They are led by their coach, Jack Spates. While Oklahoma State claims the mantle of most dominant wrestling program in the state (and arguably the country), the Sooners are considered a power in their own right and Bedlam matches draw an enormous crowd.

Women's Rowing:
On May 10, 2007 the University announced the addition of women's rowing to the intercollegiate athletics program.[9] A rowing facility will be built on the Oklahoma River near downtown Oklahoma City and is expected to be completed in 2009. The addition of the program was made possible by large donations from Aubrey McClendon and Clayton Bennett. A coach and staff will be hired during the 2007/08 academic year with recruitment beginning after that.[9] This is the first sport added since women's soccer was added in 1996.

Traditions:
The "fight song" of the University of Oklahoma is "Boomer Sooner", a version of "Boola Boola", the fight song of Yale University. "Boomer Sooner" was written by Arthur M. Alden in 1905. Other songs played at athletic events by The Pride of Oklahoma Marching Band are a version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Oklahoma!", "OK Oklahoma", played after extra points, and the "OU Chant." At home games, The Pride of Oklahoma Marching Band plays that visiting team's "fight song" while facing their fans.

The Mascot present at all football games is the Sooner Schooner, a Conestoga wagon, pulled by two crème white ponies, Boomer and Sooner. The caretakers of the wagon are the spirit group called the RUF/NEKS, who shoot off modified shotguns in celebration of scores by the home team. The group was launched in 1915 when an elderly female spectator at an OU-Oklahoma A&M basketball game chided the group for raising hell ("Sit down and be quiet, you roughnecks!").

Recently, in time for the 2005 football season, two new mascots, based on the ponies who pull the Schooner, were created, named appropriately, Boomer and Sooner. They are costumes of two identical (except for eye color) crème white ponies.

The official school colors are Crimson and Cream, with red and white sometimes used as substitutes for simplicity. The school logo is an interlocking OU design and was first used on football helmets in 1967.

The term Sooners was used to describe settlers who entered the Unassigned Lands, located in the current state of Oklahoma, before President Grover Cleveland officially proclaimed them open to settlement with the Indian Appropriations Act of 1889 on March 2, 1889. The name derived from the "sooner clause" of the Indian Appropriation Act, which stated that no one should be allowed to enter and occupy the land prior to the opening time and that such people would be denied rights to illegally claimed land.

Sooners were often deputy marshals, land surveyors, railroad employees, and others who were able to legally enter the territory early to mark out choice pieces of land for themselves or others. Some sooners crossed into the territory illegally at night and were originally called "moonshiners" because they entered "by the light of the moon." These sooners would hide in ditches at night and suddenly appear to stake their claim after the land run started, hours ahead of legal settlers.

The term Boomer relating to Oklahoma has two meanings. The first boomers were part of the "Boomer Movement," made up of white settlers who believed the Unassigned Lands were public property and open to anyone for settlement, not just Indian tribes. Their reasoning came from a clause in the Homestead Act of 1862, which said that any settler could claim 160 acres (0.65 km2) of public land. Some boomers entered and were removed more than once by the United States Army.

Those who observed the official start of the land run and began the race for free land at the sound of the starting boom were also called "boomers." These boomers, however, often found choice sections of land already occupied by sooners or, in some cases, by boomers. Problems with sooners continued with each successive land run, with as much as 50% of available land taken by sooners in an 1895 land run.

Litigation between boomers and sooners continued well into the 20th century, and eventually the United States Department of the Interior was given ultimate authority to settle the disputes.

In 1908 the University of Oklahoma adopted "Sooners" as the nickname of their football team (after having first tried "Rough Riders" and "Boomers"). Eventually Oklahoma became known as "The Sooner State."

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