STILLWATER, Okla. -- A day before his 80th birthday, Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens gave Oklahoma State University one of its biggest presents ever.

The billionaire energy magnate said Wednesday he has given $100 million to his alma mater for endowed chairs, the largest gift for academics ever given in the state. A law mandates that the state match dollar-for-dollar such donations for endowed chairs, in effect doubling Pickens' gift.

"This is a fantastic, historic day for the university and for the state of Oklahoma," Oklahoma State President Burns Hargis told a crowd of about 2,000 people gathered on the lawn of the university's Edmon Low Library. "This is a gift that will transform this university in ways never dreamed of before."

Pickens has made previous gifts to Oklahoma State through the years that have totaled more than $300 million, and he said Wednesday he will provide more money for the university in the future.

"Be patient. I'm not through," he said. "There will be more."

Moments later, a large banner reading "Thank You, Boone Happy Birthday" was unveiled from atop the library. The water in the library's fountain also had been dyed orange.

Pickens said his goal was to make the university competitive with other educational institutions.

The land-grant university now has 101 fully funded and matched chairs and professorships, and Hargis said Pickens' gift will endow 150 more such positions across the university's academic community.

"Boone's gift will allow us to retain and attract extraordinary faculty members," Hargis said. "... This gift will allow us to fulfill our land-grant mission."

Pickens is a native of Holdenville — a southeastern Oklahoma town he mentioned numerous times on Wednesday — and a former wildcatter who now heads the Dallas-based hedge fund BP Capital Management LP.

Gov. Brad Henry, who attended the announcement ceremony, called Pickens "truly an Oklahoma treasure."

University officials said the $100 million is nearly double the largest non-bequest donation to any U.S. university so far in 2008. The University of Texas received a $55 million gift earlier this year.

OSU faculty council chairman Bob Miller looked almost moved to tears of joy when speaking about the gift.

"Your gift clearly demonstrates ... to the members of the OSU faculty the genuine confidence you have in our abilities to do remarkable things in our research and scholarly activities," Miller said while addressing Pickens. "This gift challenges each and every member of the faculty to further excellence."

The previous largest academic gift ever made to an Oklahoma university is thought to be the $70 million given to Oral Roberts University by Mart Green, the founder of the Christian office and educational supply store chain Mardel. Green gave the private Tulsa university the final $62 million installment of the gift on Jan. 30.

The largest such gift ever previously received by a state university in Oklahoma was announced on Feb. 11, when the Tulsa-based George Kaiser Family Foundation said it would give $50 million to the University of Oklahoma. That gift will allow the College of Medicine at OU's Tulsa campus to have the nation's first officially named School of Community Medicine.

OU also received a gift of French Impressionist art valued at just under $50 million in 2000 from the estate of Clara Weitzenhoffer.

In January 2006, Pickens gave a $165 million gift to the university's athletic department, and at the time was criticized by some for not giving a similar sum toward Oklahoma State's academic efforts.

He said Wednesday that he gave to the athletic department first because it offered "more bang for the buck," but that he always intended to make a sizable gift toward Oklahoma State's academic mission at some point.

"Burns is a very persuasive guy," Pickens said of Oklahoma State's newly installed president. "I didn't plan on doing this (now), but when we made the gift three years ago, I said I'd be back."

Pickens, who earned a degree in geology from Oklahoma State in 1951, also pledged in 2003 to give $70 million to Oklahoma State, including $20 million to kick-start a campaign to expand the university's football stadium.

Included in that gift was a pledge of $15 million, to be generated by Pickens' stadium trust fund for scholarships, and $35 million in his will to fund more scholarships and other athletic programs.

While the state is to match donations for endowed chairs under its program, there is a $124 million backlog of donations that program has yet to match.

Legislative leaders and Henry agreed on a bond issue late Wednesday that includes $100 million to catch up on the backlog at universities throughout the state.

In 2007, Pickens announced he would donate $50 million to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas with the agreement that the institution would turn that gift into $500 million over the next 25 years.

That same year, he announced a donation of $6 million for the Jubilee Park community near Fair Park, where crime and poverty have been issues.

In February, Pickens announced a $10 million donation to the Museum of Nature & Science for its new 150,000-square-foot facility in Victory Park.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.