Running back Barry Sanders won the Heisman Trophy in 1988, and the school has had 8 former players and coaches inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

[6] Oklahoma State continued to struggle under head coach Floyd Gass, an OSU alum, who led the Cowboy football program for three seasons.

In 1978, the Big Eight Conference initiated an investigation into the OSU football program in response to allegations of violations of several NCAA rules and regulations while Stanley was head coach.

Stanley successfully filed suit against the conference to require them to provide various due process protections in their final hearing on the charges.

His good friend Larry Lacewell told Johnson that if he wanted to win a national championship and eventually coach in the NFL he had to take the Miami job.

[14] Sanders also ran for 222 yards and scored 5 touchdowns in his three quarters of action in the 1988 Holiday Bowl, a game that is not included in the official NCAA season statistics.

[15] Sanders learned of his Heisman Trophy win while he was with the team in Tokyo, Japan, preparing to face Texas Tech in the Coca-Cola Classic.

Days after the 1988 season, Oklahoma State and the NCAA released the results of an unusual joint investigation into the football program.

The investigation revealed several major violations dating prior to Johnson's tenure, principally involvement in a "bidding war" for Dykes out of high school.

In Jones' last six years, the Cowboys won only seven games in Big Eight play, including three seasons of winless conference records.

In the 2001 regular season finale, the underdog Cowboys would defeat the reigning national champion Oklahoma Sooners in Norman 16–13.

[19] Mike Gundy was promoted from offensive coordinator and named immediately as Miles' successor and the 22nd head coach at Oklahoma State.

9 in the country in the AP Top 25, but the dreams of a miracle season were crushed when the Pokes lost 45–35 to the unranked Houston Cougars at home the following week, and later finding out that star wide receiver Dez Bryant was ruled ineligible for the remainder of the season, for lying to the NCAA about having contact with 8-time pro bowler Deion Sanders, which wasn't an NCAA violation in the first place.

On December 3, 2011, the Cowboys won their first Big 12 Championship in school history with a 44–10 victory over rival Oklahoma in the Bedlam Series.

The nationally third-ranked Cowboys eventually went on to win the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl by beating fourth-ranked Stanford in overtime, 41–38, on January 2, 2012.

[27][28][29][30] Additionally, the 2011 Oklahoma State Cowboys football team was selected by NCAA-designated major selector Colley Matrix after a 12–1 season, highlighted by a Big 12 championship and Fiesta Bowl win.

Six coaches have won conference championships with the Cowboys: John Maulbetsch, Lynn Waldorf, Lookabaugh, Jennings B. Whitworth, Stanley, and Gundy.

[30] Four head coaches, Maulbetsch, Waldorf, Exendine, and Johnson have been inducted in the College Football Hall of Fame.

[35] Since the establishment of the team in 1901, the Oklahoma State Cowboys have appeared in 34 bowl games and have a record of 22 victories and 12 losses.

Author Steve Budin, whose father was a New York bookie, has recently publicized the claim that the 1954 "Bedlam" game against rival OU was fixed by mobsters in his book Bets, Drugs, and Rock & Roll (ISBN 1-60239-099-1).

[72] Allegedly, the mobsters threatened and paid off a cook to slip laxatives into a soup eaten by many OU Sooner starting players, causing them to fall violently ill in the days leading up to the game.

In 2003, alumnus T. Boone Pickens made a historic donation to the university for improvements to its athletic facilities, and it was announced that the stadium would be renamed in his honor.

In 2018, Oklahoma State installed a 6,160 square foot video board on the façade of Gallagher-Iba Arena in the stadium's east end zone.

For the 2011 football season, it was revealed that Nike had created new uniforms for the Cowboys, offering three different helmet options in either gray, black, or white.

In a 2012 home game against Iowa State, the Cowboys debuted the new orange helmets, along with a new Pistol Pete decal.

On May 10, 2023, the official Oklahoma State Football Twitter (or X.com) account released a video post touting new uniforms.

The uniforms use 1980s striping, a variety of logos, and a modern "Wild West" typography developed internally by Oklahoma State in 2019 called Cimarron.

The student section has a tradition of hitting orange paddles on the sideline and end zone walls at home games.

Located atop the west end zone of Boone Pickins Stadium is the names of the inductees and their retired jersey numbers.

Five individuals have been inducted as of 2024, Thurman Thomas was the first inductee followed by Barry Sanders, Bob Fenimore, Terry Miller, and Leslie O'Neal.