The University of Oklahoma celebrated the 25th anniversary of athletic director Joe Castiglione’s hiring on Sunday and revealed a commemorative logo to mark the occasion.
The 65-year-old Castiglione was officially hired on April 30, 1998, following a five-year stint in the same position at Missouri. His first coaching hire was former Florida defensive coordinator Bob Stoops, who then led the football program to the national title in just his second season at the helm.
That was one of 23 national championships and 108 conference titles the Sooners have won across 19 varsity sports under Castiglione, who is the longest-tenured athletic director among Football Bowl Subdivision schools and has been named the athletic director of the year six times.
Castiglione is the only person to serve on the College Football Playoff, NCAA Division I basketball and NCAA Division I baseball committees. He was also previously the president of the Division I-A Athletic Directors Association and National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics.
Under Castiglione’s direction, Oklahoma has graduated 2,387 student-athletes and had 15 Big XII athletes of the year, including former football players Josh Heupel (2000-01), Sam Bradford (2008-09), Baker Mayfield (2017-18), Kyler Murray (2018-19) and Jalen Hurts (2019-20).
Castiglione, a 1979 University of Maryland graduate who was inducted into the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame in 2018, typically wears a crimson or white fedora, which is prominently displayed in the 25th anniversary logo. It’s unclear if the logo will be worn on any of the Sooners’ uniforms this year.