A Mean Green Wedding
Not only did UNT have reason to celebrate its first New Orleans Bowl appearance in 2001, so did Erin Causey ('04) and Steven Pettit ('02).
"We met at a North Texas watching party, and our first date was going to UNT's first New Orleans Bowl game," Steven says.
After a five-year courtship, the couple thought a UNT-themed reception at the Gateway Center seemed the natural choice for their 2007 wedding — the "big game."
Choreographed as a pregame show, a video produced by Erin's father promoted their wedding as if it were game day. The clip played to start their reception, introducing them and their wedding party mimicking announcers at a Monday Night Football game.
"Introducing the starting line-up …," the video begins as each member of the bridal party announces his or her name and university in between actual football game excerpts. The video ends with Steven and Erin chanting, "Go Mean Green."
Each detail of the reception breathed UNT, from green-and-white pom-poms for wedding favors to a ride on Boomer, the cannon, through a spirit line of fans.
"I'm a big sports fan and I love to root for ‘my' team, the one I am a part of," Erin says. "I was lucky to get involved right during the bowl streak; we were a little school that nobody expected anything from."
She remembers "Miracle in the Desert" — the 2001 game against New Mexico State that advanced UNT further to the New Orleans Bowl.
"The last few seconds of the game looked bad for us. After a back and forth game, it all came down to a single play. We were holding hands and praying, saying, ‘We deserve it,'" she says. "And then we did it."
Erin knows from her experiences as a student and now as a game-attending alumna that the personal relationships make a difference at UNT.
"All UNT fans are true, genuine fans," she says.
After graduating from UNT, Steven entered pharmacy school in Amarillo and was assigned to a pharmacy internship back in Denton at Community Pharmacy. Landing a full-time position at the pharmacy, Steven says, "It was fate. I can work Saturday mornings and still make it to the game."
