Friends to the End
Mike Holder fondly remembers his camaraderie with Boone Pickens
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ince his passing, T. Boone Pickens’ legacy of generosity has been at the forefront, with more than half a billion dollars given during his lifetime to his alma mater, Oklahoma State University. His name is etched in granite at the T. Boone Pickens School of Geology and proclaimed in letters several feet tall inside and outside the football stadium. News of his business prowess and gutsy decision-making is easily retrieved. He touched thousands during his lifetime — but far fewer actually knew the man. For OSU Athletic Director Mike Holder, Mr. Pickens was a confidant, a mentor and most of all, a friend. In 1973, Mike Holder was an Oklahoma State University graduate student set on joining the PGA Tour when coach Labron Harris convinced him to apply for the university’s head golf coach opening. “When you’re young, you think you can do anything,” Holder said. “I thought I would be better than the coach I had, and that was delusional. I thought I would do it for a year, work on my game and then go play on the PGA Tour.”
Boone Pickens (from left), Mike Holder and Jerry Walsh prepare for a round at the Cowboy Pro-Am golf tournament.
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Holder inherited a program budget of $27,000, which had to cover his salary, money for scholarships, tournament entry fees, equipment and everything else. Holder was stumped. He had big plans for his new job but no idea how to make them happen. Holder came up with a golf tournament, the Cowboy Pro-Am, to raise funds and invited alumnus Jerry Walsh to play. Walsh brought two friends: Mr. Pickens and Sherman Smith. Holder was simply grateful Walsh produced a team for the tournament. He couldn’t have known that the future was walking into the world of the Cowboys with three sets of clubs. The trio played every year. Holder was intrigued by Mr. Pickens, the CEO of a successful company. Once Holder studied up on the man, he bought a little stock in Pickens’ company, Mesa Petroleum. “I wrote him a letter and told him we bought some stock in his company, you know, to reciprocate,” Holder said. “He did a favor for Jerry Walsh when he came here. So I wanted him to
understand that I appreciated it, and that I also had confidence in him, so I invested in his company.” Little by little, over one golf weekend a year, a friendship was forged. One of Mr. Pickens’ passions was quail hunting, and he occasionally invited Holder to come to his ranch in west Texas for a weekend hunt. “When Boone Pickens invited you to do something, you accepted the invitation,” he said. “I came initially out of respect for him. (Quail hunting) wasn’t something I particularly wanted to do, but that changed quickly.” For 22 years, the trio of Walsh, Pickens and Smith played the Cowboy Pro-Am. Then came Nov. 19, 1995. Walsh and his wife died in a car accident in Amarillo. “That was a really, really tough loss for me, but especially for Boone. That was his best friend,” Holder said. “I never will forget, after that funeral, I was visiting with Boone and he said, ‘Why don’t you come out to the ranch, and we’ll hunt a little bit of quail?’ I still wasn’t a quail hunter, but I knew he needed somebody.”
“He changed everybody’s perception of what is possible and then what part everybody should play in the future. Everyone has got to be all in and everyone has got to do their part.” MIKE HOLDER, OKLAHOMA STATE ATHLETIC DIRECTOR
STORY SHANNON G. RIGSBY | PHOTOS PHIL SHOCKLEY, GARY LAWSON AND MIKE HOLDER
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