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Sooner Sweethearts 2019

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Inside OU

Sooner Sweethearts

According to OU superstition, if you kiss someone in the Spoonholder, the two of you will be destined for marriage. Thanks to Give to OU for collecting our Sooner Sweetheart stories. Visit them at ou.edu/give.

Krista & David Wise

From Krista…

“Both from OKC, we knew each other before college but became close friends (actually inseparable) at OU on Bid Night in August 1987. From PLC meetings to campus activities to facilitating Sooner Connections for all incoming freshmen together during the summer, we spent much time together as the best of friends. We studied in the Great Reading Room at the Biz (as it’s now called) Sunday through Thursday each week at the same table for years and went together to almost all the Tri Delta parties. We co-chaired the Student Alumni Board together and were actually paired alphabetically as Homecoming King and Queen candidates during our senior year. The common question everyone asked: "Are you all dating, or what?" We didn’t officially begin dating until the year after we graduated and became engaged on the North Oval a year later. This year, we will celebrate our 25th anniversary! We now live in Austin, Texas, and are proud to have three sons, an OU alum (Tave), an OU sophomore (Chapman) and an incoming freshman next year (Tucker) — fourth-generation Sooners.”

Krista & David Wise
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Crystal &  Joseph Schmidt

From Joseph…

“Crystal and I met by the Walker Center piano in 2011. She played so beautifully, the music pulled me from the Walker RSA office. I greeted her, and that was the first time I saw her wide, warm smile. We dated, sharing a love of great food and laughter. I traveled with her to China to request her parents' blessing. To celebrate our three-year anniversary in October 2014, we visited the same piano. While she played the song we met to, I knelt next to her. She finished, paused, saw the ring, and speechlessly turned to me. I proposed. She said yes. We were married, with our reception at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art. At our wedding, our First Dance was to "our" song. We waltzed and laughed, so happy to see how things had come full circle. In 2018, we had the opportunity to meet the composer of the music that brought us together.”

Victoria & Nicanor Wolieu

From Victoria…

“My story started as a freshman at the University of Oklahoma in 2016. That first semester, I had made the decision to join the ROTC program, and I ended up really enjoying it. I loved the atmosphere and I made some good friends. During class, there was this guy that stood out to me. He was an international student from Ivory Coast. He was handsome, had a contagious smile and never failed to make the whole class laugh. His name was Nicanor Wolieu. I was shy, so it wasn’t until November of the fall 2016 semester that I really got to know him. We were both training for the Bataan (Memorial) Death March through the ROTC program. This march is a 26.2-mile ruck with 45-plus pounds on your back. We really got to know each other, and we pushed each other through the train-up. After experiencing this feat together, we knew we wanted to ruck through life together. We had a small wedding ceremony on July 7, 2018, on the South Oval.”

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Virginie Perez Woods & Donovan Woods

From Virginie…

“I met my husband, Donovan Woods, while being an exchange student at OU from Clermont-Ferrand. He introduced me to many American and OU traditions, made me understand American football, and much more. I may have fallen in love with OU first, but he was a close second. After a few months of dating and with my time here halfway done, he proposed on Valentine’s Day by the Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher Garden Fountain. In order to stay together, he studied in Clermont-Ferrand the following academic year and we got married in 2006 in the same church my parents did (the wedding colors were, of course, crimson and cream). We decided to come back to Norman for him to finish his B.A. and for me to start a master’s degree. Thirteen years and an amazing 5-year-old daughter named Alice later, we’re still going strong! We bring her on campus often, as we still consider this place to be the most special for us. There is nowhere else we’d rather be!”

Austin Leone & Matt Vu

From Austin…

“We met after matching on a dating app in Dallas at the beginning of 2016. After getting to know each other, I learned he just started at OU while I recently graduated from OU. We were both attending graduate programs in different states, but a few months after matching, we excitedly started our relationship. While we recognized the difficulties in long-distance relationships, we made it work. Since we both shared mutual friends at OU, we attended tons of football games and enjoyed sharing in the OU traditions we both knew so well. We often walked around campus as I showed him the buildings where some of my best undergraduate memories took place. As alumni, we also went to some concerts at OU — one of our favorites was AJR on the South Oval! After almost three years making long-distance work, we’re finally in the same city building our lives together. Even though we’re no longer in Norman, we still make trips to the Palace on the Prairie and enjoy our love for each other and OU.”

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Dee Ann & Marvin Woodall

From Marvin…

“As a sophomore at OU in 1957, I met my soulmate, Dee Ann Elliott, as she was walking down the stairs to the basement apartment on Chautauqua Avenue, which I shared with three other guys from her hometown, Perry, Oklahoma. She was a very pretty blonde, and my heart skipped a beat at that moment. Apparently, so did hers, as she told her roommate later that night she had just met the person she was going to marry. It took me a while to fully grasp the future she predicted so accurately, but three years later we were married on July 2, 1960. We celebrate our 59th wedding anniversary this year. We were blessed with two great children and six grandchildren; three are now OU alums. Boomer Sooner. We still go to OU games, even traveling from our home in Pennsylvania. We love each other today, our family and OU.”