OSU baseball stadium to be named for alum Cecil O’Brate
STILLWATER — Cecil O’Brate has been to only one baseball game at Oklahoma State’s Allie P. Reynolds Stadium, but he’s certain he’ll match that on the first day the Cowboys open their new ballpark in 2020.
OSU announced Thursday that the university’s new baseball stadium, under construction at Washington and McElroy in Stillwater, will be named for O’Brate, who donated $35 million of the $75 million needed for the project.
O’Brate, 89, was born in Enid and attended what was then Oklahoma A&M from 1946-48. He is the CEO of American Warrior, Inc., and, through the O’Brate Foundation, has provided about 400 college scholarships to students below the poverty level or in the foster care system.
“It was something that was needed, that they wanted to do here,” O’Brate said of the ballpark in a meeting with a handful of reporters Thursday, OSU athletic director Mike Holder and baseball coach Josh Holliday at his sides. “It just so happened that I was ready to do something. Nothing happened that caused it. It was just the time in my life that I was ready to do it.
“It was the university, but it was the time that I felt like I’d something here.”
O’Brate Stadium will have about 3,500 permanent seats, 13 suites and 400 premium seats, with seating in the ballpark capable of being expanded upto8,000.Thefacilitywill also include a playground area, a 2,000-square foot video board, sports medicine and nutrition areas, and an indoor facility for practices. Manhattan Construction Company is building the stadium.
“I reroute myself every day coming to work and going home,” Holliday said.