Bizzell Memorial Library

The 2005 University of Oklahoma bombing occurred on October 1, 2005 at approximately 7:30 p.m. CDT, when a bomb went off near the George Lynn Cross Hall on Van Vleet Oval on the University of Oklahoma (OU) main campus. The blast took place less than 200 yards west of Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, where 84,501 spectators were attending a football game. The bomber, OU student Joel "Joe" Henry Hinrichs III, was killed in the explosion; no one else was killed.After the incident, speculation began immediately about Hinrichs' motivation and the number of accomplices, if any. An off-duty police officer had noted Hinrichs talking with a local feed store owner about ammonium nitrate and had begun an investigation. There was innuendo regarding the Pakistani heritage of the bomber's roommate. Terrorism-related speculation was heightened after the explosive agent was found to be TATP, an explosive of similar manufacture, though separate makeup, to the compound used in the July 2005 London bombings, the attempted destruction of an airplane by a shoe bomber, and by Hamas in clandestine devices for use by suicide bombers. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and local authorities concluded in 2006 that Hinrichs acted alone and had no assistance from other groups. They could not prove or disprove allegations that Hinrichs intended to enter the packed stadium and kill football fans along with himself.

The University of Oklahoma (OU) is a public research university in Norman, Oklahoma, United States. Founded in 1890, it had existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two territories became the state of Oklahoma. In Fall 2023, the university had 32,676 students enrolled, most at its main campus in Norman. Employing nearly 4,000 faculty members, the university offers 174 baccalaureate programs, 199 master's programs, 101 doctoral programs, and 88 certificate programs.The university is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity", with over $416 million in research expenditures across its three campuses in FY 2022. Its Norman campus has two prominent museums, the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, specializing in French Impressionism and Native American artwork, and the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, specializing in the natural history of Oklahoma. The University of Oklahoma has won 43 team national championships, ranking the Sooners 13th all-time in NCAA team titles. OU also ranks 7th all-time in the number of NCAA Academic All-Americans with 215 athletes. The women's softball team has won the national championship seven times: in 2000, 2013, and consecutively in 2016 and 2017 and in 2021, 2022, and 2023. The gymnastics teams have won a combined 18 national championships, with the men's team winning eight in the last 15 years, including three consecutive titles from 2015 to 2017. Beginning with the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles, the Sooners have also produced 82 Olympians (5 coaches and 77 athletes) and collected 23 medals during this time, ranking OU among the top universities for producing Olympic athletes.

The Michael F. Price College of Business at the University of Oklahoma is a business school in the United States. It was established in 1917 and currently has 5,500 students. The OU Price College of Business undergraduate program currently ranks No. 64 nationally and the top-ranked business school in Oklahoma by U.S. News And World Report.

The University of Oklahoma College of Arts and Sciences, also known as the College of A&S (or simply CAS) is the liberal arts and sciences unit of the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma. Established in 1909, the college is currently the largest unit at OU in terms of the number of students enrolled. Classes are held all over campus but the main office is located in Ellison Hall on the main campus in Norman.

The Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture at the University of Oklahoma is the architecture unit of the University of Oklahoma in Norman. It offers over 30 undergraduate and graduate degrees in four divisions. In Spring 2023, it had an enrollment of 675 undergraduates and 197 graduates.

The Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education is the education unit of the University of Oklahoma in Norman. As of fall 2005, the school had an enrollment of 639 undergraduates and 777 graduates. The building is also called Collings Hall. The College of Education began in 1930 under then president William Bennett Bizzell. It was headed by its first dean, Dr. Ellsworth Collings. To this day, the College of Education main offices reside in Collings Hall. Dr. Gregg Garn is the current dean. In October 2008 it was announced that the College of Education had received a $8 million gift from H.E. (Gene) Rainbolt in honor of his late wife, Jeannine Rainbolt. Because of that contribution, the OU Board of Regents unanimously voted to rename the college in Rainbolt's honor. It is the only college at OU to be named for a female.Part of Rainbolt's gift, with other gifts and university funding, was used to pay for a $9.5 million renovation to Collings Hall. Construction, which concluded in summer of 2010, reconstructed the building's facade and add an additional 15,000 feet of classroom space. It was the building's first major building project since 1958.The Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education was designated an Apple Distinguished Program for 2013–15. The Apple Distinguished Program designation is reserved for programs that meet criteria for innovation, leadership and educational excellence and demonstrate Apple's vision of exemplary learning environments. The college participates in a one-to-one iPad initiative, where students who are enrolled in the undergraduate teacher education program each receive an iPad at the beginning of their first semester in the college. Upon successful completion of the degree program the students keep the device and the digital content they created to use in their teaching careers.

The Oklahoma Memorial Union (OMU) is the University of Oklahoma's student union, or student activity center. The Union was completed in 1929 as a memorial to the students, faculty, and staff of the university who fought and died in World War I. The Union has more than 26 meeting and activity rooms and eight dining kiosks. The Meacham Auditorium has 400 seats, and the Molly Shi Boren Ballroom, on the third floor, seats up to 500 banquet guests.

The Weitzenhoffer Family College of Fine Arts is the fine arts unit of the University of Oklahoma in Norman. The college produces nearly 300 concerts, recitals, dramas, musicals, operas and dance performances each year. The college occupies several buildings on campus including the Museum of Art, Rupel J. Jones Fine Arts Center, Donald W. Reynolds Center for the Performing Arts, and Catlett Music Center. Started in 1924 (the fourth-oldest of OU's colleges), the College was renamed in 2004 for the Weitzenhoffer family (longtime supporters of the College and University).

The McCasland Field House is a multi-purpose indoor arena on the University of Oklahoma main campus in Norman, Oklahoma. Home of the basketball Sooners until 1975, the Field House currently hosts the men's wrestling, women's volleyball, and men's gymnastics teams. The Field House is named for T. Howard McCasland, a two-sport star who was the captain of the 1916 basketball team and an end for the football team. The facility opened with a basketball game between the Sooners and the University of Kansas Jayhawks on January 13, 1928, which the Sooners won 45-19. When it opened, the facility held over 5,000 people. It is rather unknown, these days on campus, that the Fieldhouse once witnessed concerts by Jimi Hendrix, Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley in the 1960s and 1970s. As the campus was constructed around the Field House, parking for fans disappeared and attendance at games dwindled as well. After the Lloyd Noble Center opened in 1975 and the basketball teams moved south to the new facility, the Field House seemed forgotten and neglected. Plans for refurbishment began in the 1990s along with other campus improvements, and fundraising began in earnest in September 1997. In 2005 the initial phase of a $6 million renovation project was completed, including the building's first-ever climate control system, refurbishment of the historic wood floor, new chair-back and retractable seats. The facility had to be completely rewired, not only to handle the new heating and air-conditioning systems (its first ever) and the new lighting and state-of-the-art sound and video systems, but to bring the building up to current electrical code standards. The next phase of renovations to the Field House was locker room upgrades, additions of restrooms and concessions, and expansion of the wrestling practice facility from its current 4,500 square feet (420 m2) to more than 8,000 square feet (740 m2). Finally, all of the building's windows, a distinguishing feature of the Field House, were replaced, along with the roof.

The Julian P. Kanter Political Commercial Archive at the University of Oklahoma is a depository for political television and radio commercials. The purpose of the archive is to preserve these materials while making them available for research. The Julian P. Kanter Political Commercial Archive has been designated an official project by Save America's Treasures.

The Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication is the journalism unit of the University of Oklahoma in Norman. The college is named for the former longtime publishers of The Oklahoman.

Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, also known as Owen Field or The Palace on the Prairie, is the football stadium on the campus of the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma. It serves as the home of the Oklahoma Sooners football team. The official seating capacity of the stadium, following renovations before the start of the 2019 season, is 86,112, making it the 22nd largest stadium in the world, the 13th largest college stadium in the United States and the second largest in the Big 12 Conference, behind Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium at the University of Texas at Austin.The stadium is a bowl-shaped facility with its long axis oriented north/south, with both the north and south ends enclosed. The south end has only been enclosed since the 2015-2016 off-season, when it was renovated as part of a $160 million project. Visitor seating is in the south end zone and the southern sections of the east side. The student seating sections are in the east stands, surrounding the 350-member Pride of Oklahoma band which sits in section 29, between the 20- and 35-yard lines. The Sooners' bench was once located on the east side with the students, but the home bench was moved to the west side in the mid-1990s.