Welcome to Tulsa.
Visitors are on the east side, so bring sun glasses and a hat for early in the game. All the best people are on the east side anyway. Parking in the neighborhoods around campus is a non issue. As stated above, you may have a short walk but no big deal.
The easiest place to hang out before the game would probably be Chapman Commons (the big green space off of 11th). Tailgaters, beer, wine & booze tents, and usually a stage with a band. The kiddos can run around and the adults can chat about important world issues (college football). Lots of tailgaiting around the stadium in general.
As far as what else you want to do when you are in town, it depends on what you are in to. Rent a bike and hit the river trails, or mountain biking if that's your thing. TU curates the
Gilcrease Museum, the worlds largest collection of artifacts from the American West, it includes a ton of Meso-American artifacts too (fun fact, the scope and value of the collection dwarfs Crystal Bridges, but only 3% of it is on display at any given time!). Philbrook Museum is renaissance to contemporary art. Of course there are a ton of other museums around town, depending on what you are in too. Or various garden centers, botanical gardens, the Oklahoma Aquarium, Air & Space Museum, the zoo, etc.
Or... hang out in the Tulsa Arts District... pop into the Woody Guthrie Center, a dozen small art galleries, game shop, record, store, soda fountain, venues, books stores, etc. Hop over to the Blue Dome District (german beer hall, bowling, comedy club, etc.). Or the more upscale Brookside or Cherry street entertainment districts. Or go forth and find some awesome dive bars around town, the Colony has live music every night of the week... about a mile down the road from TU. There are three large Native casinos in the Creek Nation (RiverSpirit/Margaritaville), Cherokee (Hardrock), and Osage (just rebranded and I don't pay attention, sorry Osage!) - if you're feeling lucky. A wind down at the roof of the Mayo Hotel downtown is always awesome, or go the opposite route and find the Cellar Dweller.
There is a ton of quirky little things you can kill time with. The Center of the Universe, the Golden Driller, ORU's Jetson's campus, Route 66, Linnaeus Teaching Gardens, a hike at Turkey Mountain, on Friday you could just walk through the 1920s lobbies of the older sky scrappers (built to show people they had cash to burn!), or ...
There are
10 breweries between downtown and TU (that's like 3 miles). If you drink beer... you have choices. Marshall's founder graduated from TU. Welltown has partnered with TU students on a couple projects. Renaissance is only ~8 blocks from campus. So really, it isn't about beer... it's a cultural expirience in honor of the University you are visiting. Yeah?
As far as events, it looks like "Misfest" is going on at River Parks West, if "Music is She and She is Music" is something you're into. Or Chris Young is at the big municipal arena. There's a Zombie run and a USL soccer game. Scot Fest is that weekend in one of the suburbs. Tulsa Overground Music and Film Festival. Or you look up what the various theater companies have going on, the city or university performing arts centers, or Guthrie Green. The American Shetland Pony Club has their national competition at the State Fair grounds (~2 miles from campus). "Neon Dreams" electric music festival (~2 miles from campus). You will be here within the first week of the opening of a
$400,000,000.00 park a few miles from the University... head over there and check it out (yes, four hundred million dollar park). They have three Reggae legends playing the evening of the 14th (free).
Oh, there's also a football game you should really check out. The team in blue are the good guys, remember to cheer for them loudly.
(Tulsa Vistor's Bureau can make a donation to the GHC in lieu of payment to me for services rendered herein :sunglasses: )
