STILLWATER — Mary Elizabeth Cordia is admittingly pretty bashful.

It’s part of the reason she’s often unnoticed on the baseline at each Oklahoma State men’s basketball game. She sports an orange sweatshirt. She uses multiple cameras. 

She captures the action — either in photos or video — blending in with other media.

Fortunately, the attention is not on her.

That’s why the 23-year-old graduate student did not come to OSU right out of high school. The name on the football stadium looms large.

Boone Pickens Stadium, as in T. Boone Pickens, her grandfather.

“I feel like I’m a representation of him when people find out,” Cordia said. “I do put a lot of pressure on myself because I want to put my best foot forward.

“It’s one of those things I don’t want anyone to think that I’m getting something because of who he is.”

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Cordia is on her own trajectory.

In her first season as a creative specialist for the Cowboys, she has stepped into a huge role with the athletic department as the visual storyteller for men’s basketball, golf and equestrian. It’s led her to embrace her lineage in a new way.

She is the youngest grandchild of the oilman who transformed OSU with more than $652 million in donations to athletics and academics before his death, yet she aims to leave her own mark in Stillwater.

“I feel like she’s matured here,” Mary Elizabeth’s mom, Liz, said. “I feel like she’s been embraced here. It’s been the right thing for her to do.

“I’m a great believer in God winks. I just think she was meant to come here, even if it was for a brief period.”

Mary Elizabeth only came to OSU last year after competing for the SMU equestrian team and receiving her undergraduate degree. While in Dallas, she grew even closer with Pickens, spending countless hours together at his nearby apartment or ranch.

That time made her stronger. And it ultimately prepared her for OSU.

“It ended up working out the best of the both worlds and I got to go to both schools in the end,”  she said.

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Mary Elizabeth was destined for the sports world.

Born and raised in Alexandria, Virginia, she was 10 years younger than her oldest brother, Alexander, and eight years younger than her older brother, Andrew. Both were athletes, which meant plenty of time at a ballfield.

Mary Elizabeth often dreamed of being an OSU cheerleader and one day riding Bullet. She loved the outdoors, primarily hunting and fishing. And to her grandfather’s delight, she understood sports. 

“Hell, I never knew the rules of any sport,” Liz said. “I knew it had to go through a goal or this or that. I was one of those mothers that always watched her son, not the game. Mary Elizabeth knew the rules and what was going on.

“He loved that about her and he encouraged it.”

Mary Elizabeth ultimately followed the family all around the East Coast. Andrew was a star lacrosse player on a path to a Yale scholarship.

One day as a child, Mary Elizabeth’s father, Lou, handed her a camera.

“Just to keep me entertained,” she joked.

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Still, it was a moment she will never forget. She saw sports in a whole new way.

She fell for football — the sport she often watched as a young child on Pickens’ lap — and chose to compete in equestrian. She began taking pictures at horse shows and her brothers’ games before turning to portrait photography. 

It was a summer in Paris with National Geographic’s high school student exploration program that pushed her even more. Mary Elizabeth quickly learned she wanted to tell stories through people.

It’s a big reason why she chose SMU over OSU. 

She had an equestrian scholarship to either school. But she felt a burden the size of Boone Pickens Stadium when she visited Stillwater. SMU had an art department she loved and her grandfather was there.

“I did love campus, but I didn’t really want to be the grandkid,” Mary Elizabeth said. “I wanted to be able to work for it.”

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That was Boone Pickens’ lunch date with Mary Elizabeth.

“He was a pretty cool guy,” she said.

They went to Dallas Cowboys games together. They went to OSU football games often. 

She lived in his Dallas apartment nearly every weekend or they would go to his ranch.

And they consumed an enormous amount of ice cream.

Oreo McFlurries. Butterfinger Blizzards. Homemade flavors.

“He was just a granddad in those times,” Mary Elizabeth said.

Pickens was still her biggest fan. He often made equestrian meets, not hesitating to remind Mary Elizabeth that she should have chosen OSU. Ironically, Liz said Mary Elizabeth often lost her point to the Cowgirls.

There was no better reminder of that than her first national meet.

Pickens arrived in a bright orange suit. There were no signs of SMU’s red or blue.

He even took a photo with the SMU team afterward — of course, he also took some with the Cowgirls — and it bothered Liz to the point that when they got back in the car she asked what he was thinking.

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“Well, what are you thinking?” Pickens replied. “Did you think I was going to change? I came to root for Baby Girl. I didn’t come to root for (SMU).”

Sports is what connected Pickens and Mary Elizabeth. But there was also genuine love.

As Pickens’ health deteriorated, Mary Elizabeth was there when her mom couldn’t be. When Liz was there, Pickens often asked for Baby Girl instead.

“I don’t like watching sports with you,” he’d tell Liz.

“He’d be so tickled when she came,” Liz said.

At that point, Pickens no longer watched sports with the audio on. He hated commercials but he also had better entertainment with his granddaughter.

Mary Elizabeth dictated what was happening.

She was ultimately there until the end, holding Pickens’ hand as he died on Sept. 11, 2019.

“It was special to be there with him,” Mary Elizabeth said. “It was nice to always be there when he needed something. You didn’t know it was the end until it was the end.

“No one can take that away from me.”

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Mary Elizabeth thought she had a job with the Dallas Cowboys.

But the COVID-19 pandemic had different plans. The job market dried up as she completed her undergraduate degree in the spring of 2020.

OSU again emerged, this time with its sports media graduate program. Mary Elizabeth could finally don orange and black like her grandfather dreamed.

“It seemed like the best of all worlds,” she said.

Once accepted, Mary Elizabeth reached out to OSU equestrian coach Larry Sanchez, just so she could be around horses. But she also reached out to Courtney Bay, OSU’s creative director. Mary Elizabeth became her shadow. 

She learned the ins and outs of the job. When Bay left for Illinois early in the fall, Mary Elizabeth slid into her role with men’s basketball, golf and equestrian for at least this school year.

And it’s a big job. OSU basketball especially relies on visual storytelling on and off the court. Cowboys coach Mike Boynton also uses it heavily in recruiting.

“She stepped in to fill some big shoes,” Boynton said. “She brings great knowledge of how we operate, which has helped the transition. She also is really talented with photography and video, and is continuing to improve as a storyteller.”

Nowadays, being known as the granddaughter isn’t so bad.

It’s not something Mary Elizabeth boasts about. New assistant director of communications Patrick Osborne had no idea until a golf road trip early in the year.

Instead, Mary Elizabeth carries herself like her grandfather.

And she’s doing it at a place he forever changed.

“This is my dad’s home,” Liz said. “He loved this school. To see his statue in front of that stadium, see his name on that stadium, he would be so proud of her. He would be so proud of her.”

Mary Elizabeth often sees the not-so-subtle reminders of Pickens. She immediately goes back to the moments they had together.

And she pushes forward on her own path.

“Everyone has kind of heard some of his Boone-isms,” she said. “His voice is kind of just always in my head now, especially when I hit tough roads. He always taught us to be the first one in, last one out. Be the one to turn the lights on, turn the lights off. Always be there to help.

“Seeing the lessons he’s taught me myself over the years and also getting to see it in person was really awesome. He was just always the voice of reason.”

Jacob Unruh covers college sports for The Oklahoman. You can send your story ideas to him at junruh@oklahoman.com or on Twitter at @jacobunruh. Support his work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.