A "Chance" Meeting

Steve and I met early in the fall semester, 1968. We were in Dr. Crawford’s botany lecture with about 300 other people. I spotted him (hard to miss him at 6’-8”) and my friend, Jean, told me she would introduce us. She was dating another football player, so we planned to be casually walking by the coaches offices when the afternoon team meeting ended. Well, we walked around the block several times before the meeting finally ended! Jean introduced me to Steve, and then she and her boyfriend promptly got into an argument and broke up right in front of us!

But Steve asked me if I planned to go to the freshman game that night, and would I like to go for a coke afterwards. So, our first date was me watching him play football as I happened to sit behind his parents! Right after the game, he came out from the dressing room with blood (someone else’s) all over his jersey. I think that was supposed to impress me. In those days, freshman girls had to be back in the dorm by 10:50pm. So after talking with his parents we only had a few minutes to get me back to the dorm; no coke date! And it was a long time before I admitted our chance meeting wasn’t so accidental!

Steve called the next day and soon we were dating only each other. It was pretty close to love at first sight for both of us. We married on June 14, 1969, at the age of 19. We should have been a “statistic” years ago, by the odds! But we both graduated on time in 1972, and Steve was drafted by the New York Jets. His pro career was extremely short and we both went into teaching for a few years, and then the business world.

A few years ago we started thinking of where we’d like to retire. It had to be a college town, close to a big airport and good medical care. Denton was it! Three years ago we moved back to Denton and Steve bought an Allstate insurance agency. It’s wonderful to be back where we began and to become involved in alumni activities.

We now have 2 children and 6 grandchildren and are still in love with each other. And we are each other’s best friend. Our oldest grandson wore green and white face paint to his first UNT football game when he was 18 months old! (see photo) We hope to keep the Mean Green tradition growing in our family!