Ain’t Eight Great?

The OU women’s gymnastics team hoisted their trophy high after winning the 2026 NCAA championship in April. It was the squad’s second national title in a row and eighth in program history. “You don’t get immune to the feeling of having an accomplishment like this,” says head coach K.J. Kindler, who has led the team to all eight national championships. OU ranks third for most women’s gymnastics national titles in NCAA history.

Keeping Time

A mechanism that has kept the four clock faces atop Oklahoma Memorial Union moving since the tower’s construction in 1936 is finally retiring. A new mechanism will be installed to keep minutes and hours on track for students, faculty, staff and visitors who glance upward while crossing campus. The original, 90-year-old mechanism will be displayed in the union’s Beaird Lounge.

A Family Heirloom Homecoming 

When an unexpected package arrived at the OU Alumni Association, Miami, Okla., resident Samantha Cook offered one family a clue in an ongoing mystery. Cook found a pristine class ring while digging in a second-hand desk and knew it was special to someone. The ring featured the graduation year “1954” and the Seed Sower on one side, with “MS”—referring to a Master of Science degree—flanking Evans Hall and the Sooner Schooner on the other. Etched inside was the name, “Charles M. Godard.” Alumni staff scoured records and eventually found Godard’s youngest son, David, who remembered the pride family felt seeing his father wear the ring, now back in its rightful home. Grateful and moved by Cook’s thoughtfulness, the family says they will cherish the returned heirloom.

Ron Howard Celebrates His Parents’ ‘Impossible Dreams’

When two-time Academy Award-winning director and actor Ron Howard spoke at OU’s “Excellence Among Us” ceremony May 15 in advance of accepting an honorary degree, he tied his family’s origins directly back to OU. His parents, Rance Howard and Jean Speegle Howard, were from rural Oklahoma and met as freshmen drama students. “It started here because the university achieved its highest purpose with my folks,” Howard said. “It gave impossible dreams a real, fighting chance.” Howard also visited historic Holmberg Hall on OU’s Norman campus. While standing on the stage where his parents first met, Howard was thanked by recipients of a scholarship he established in their names to benefit rural Oklahoma students in the Helmerich School of Drama.

Doctor for a Day

Potential physicians of the future suited up in white coats, practiced basic checkups on teddy bear patients, scrubbed in for simulated “surgeries” and met real-life health professionals during March’s “Doctor for a Day” event at the OU Health School of Community Medicine in Tulsa. The new “doctors” also were hosted at a special graduation ceremony at the end of their workday.

One OU. Big Impact.

OU Giving Day 2026 was a giant success because of you. Thank you for showing the world what it means to be a Sooner!

$29,639,944 raised

6,745 individual gifts

50 states and 18 countries represented worldwide