Avid UTSA football fans Laura and Gary will tie the knot during the pre-game tailgate on Sept. 8.
(Sept. 6, 2018) -- UTSA alumnus Gary Alexander ’99 loves Roadrunners Football and has been a super fan since the team took the gridiron in 2011, infamous for his orange and blue striped overalls at tailgate parties.
After meeting and dating Laura Chavez, he decided to up the ante in their relationship by inviting her to come hang out with him at his most cherished event – a Roadrunners tailgate on Nov. 21, 2015 against Rice University.
And now they are taking their love for one another and UTSA football to a new level as they plan to exchange wedding vows at a tailgate in Alamodome Lot C on Sept. 8 before the Baylor game.
“I’ll admit I was nervous,” Chavez said, recalling her first time going to a tailgate of any kind. “There were many people he was close to and had known for years; so it was a chance to see him in his own element.”
She hasn’t missed a tailgate since.
“I proposed to Laura at the second to last tailgate of the season (2017), and as a joke she said ‘we should have the wedding here,’” Alexander said. “Initially I said no, but I thought about it and said ‘why not!’”
Alexander, who created the Twitter handle @tailgatehitch for his fellow UTSA alumni and friends to follow their wedding journey, believes theirs is the first tailgate wedding at a UTSA football game.
“UTSA Football – it is the only team I have,” Alexander said. “I don’t root for or care about a NFL team. My team is UTSA, and I die with the guys on the field. I’m in UTSA gear every day.”
Chavez has also embraced the UTSA tailgate experience.
“The tailgate community is family to him and they all welcomed me like family when we started dating,” she said. “He proposed to me at one of the tailgates so it seemed fitting that we have it there.”
As the days draw closer to the tailgate hitch, the couple is excited to share their ceremony with the entire UTSA community, UTSA Alumni Association members and anyone in the parking lot that day.
“For those that show up, I want them to think this was the most original ceremony they have ever seen,” Alexander said. “It is a wedding to us, but it’s a tailgate to everyone else. Lot C is my football home and it will forever be our spot.”
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Each fall and spring semester, students convene at the Main Campus at UTSA with booths, ideas and prototypes. A crowd of judges, local organizations, students, faculty and sponsors walk around and talk to the students about their projects and ask questions. Students get the real-life experience of "pitching" their project with hopes of getting funding or support to move to the next level.
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