Oklahoma A&M Board of Regents Approves Construction for Wrestling Training Center

STILLWATER — David Taylor and the most successful athletic program in the history of the NCAA will have a new facility in the not-too-distant future.

The Oklahoma A&M Board of Regents on Friday voted to approve the construction of a wrestling training center. Costs for the project are “not expected to exceed $16 million,” all of which will be from private donors. Construction will begin when funds are fully committed.

“The sooner the better, of course, because it takes a while to build,” OSU President Jim Hess told PFB after the meeting. “You’re probably looking at a 12-to-18-month build time — at least 18 months, probably. But the sooner we can secure all the private money, the $16 million, some of which has already been received. But we have pledges for all of it.

“As soon as the money’s in, they’ll start construction.”

The facility is expected to be about 62,000 square feet on the north side of Gallagher-Iba Arena (for the directionally challenged, see the map below).

It’ll feature a 16,000-square-foot practice gym with six mats, a dedicated training area and grandstand seating. There will also be a 2,000-square-feet space for the existing coaches’ locker room and includes the the transformation of Lot 4 into a landscaped plaza. A new north-side loading service access point will also be included.

Back in 2023, OSU announced the “OSU Vision Plan,” which laid out concepts for facility upgrades around the university. One of those was a new wrestling facility. The following mockup was released with that announcement:

The program received a locker room renovation that wrapped up in 2022, but the wrestling practice room itself is in need of a refresh — especially relative to the other top programs in the country (see Iowa).

The OSU wrestling program has won more national championships (34) than any team in any sport. The Cowboys last won a wrestling national title in 2006 but have been catapulted back into national relevance with Taylor’s addition as coach.

OSU finished third as a team at nationals last season, the Cowboys’ highest placing since 2021. OSU had two national champions (DJ Hamiti and Wyatt Hendrickson), the first time the Cowboys had multiple individual champs since 2016.

“Given our long-standing traditions in wrestling, it was important for us to make capital improvements to invest in wrestling,” Hess said. “Our coach, as you all know, is phenomenal — I think the best wrestling coach in the United States, or anywhere. We wanted to support wrestling and the coaching effort. This will help do it.”