A Very Maverick Marriage
Although they started dating their senior year at Westside High School, for alums Jon Brooks (’96) and Bridget (Weide) Brooks (’96), the University of Nebraska at Omaha has been a central component of their relationship.
Both received full tuition Regent’s Scholarships to UNO and decided to study journalism, taking all their classes together. The day after their graduation, UNO announced it was starting a hockey program. Bridget stood in line on the first day and put down a deposit for season tickets. They attended the first Mavericks Hockey home game on Oct. 17, 1997.
The two were engaged in 1998, and married on Saturday, Oct. 23, 2004, the weekend of a home hockey series versus Western Michigan. “We did our church rehearsal mid-afternoon on Friday, had our rehearsal dinner at Mama’s Pizza and then went to the game at the then Qwest Center,” says Bridget.
After their wedding the next day, they held a late afternoon reception and left by 6 p.m. to attend the second night of the series. They were welcomed onto the ice for an intermission contest, and they sported matching UNO jerseys with “Bride” and “Groom” on the back.
The following weekend, they honeymooned in East Lansing, Michigan, where they watched the hockey team split a series against Michigan State. They hosted the first of eight bus trips for hockey fans in February 2005, organized under their fan website, MavPuck.com.
Their love for Omaha Hockey continues. The pair have never missed a home game, “over 500 consecutive home games,” Bridget notes, “And more than 100 road games, a handful of conference playoff games, several NCAA regionals and one amazing trip to the Frozen Four.”
For these two, it seems that UNO, hockey and their relationship have always aligned.