Barbara: “Both of our undergraduate degrees are in journalism—Matt’s from the U and mine from BYU. Matt’s sister lined us up because we had journalism in common. I come from a family of all graduates of BYU. My parents both graduated from BYU and met at BYU. All my siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles went to BYU. Matt comes from a family of all U graduates.”
Matthew: “My dad taught at the U from the late ‘50s to the early ‘70s as a psychology professor and my siblings attended the U and most graduated from the U.”
Barbara: “We were definitely a house divided! But after we had kids, I went to the U and in 2012 received a master’s degree in American history, so now we both have U degrees.
About 20 years ago, we got this baby Utah sweatshirt for our daughter, who is 19 now. We dressed our baby girl in it before she was even a year old. I dressed her up as a U of U cheerleader with it for her first Halloween. My parents saw pictures of that and for Christmas sent her a BYU cheerleader outfit!”
Matthew: “We have stayed connected to the university because three of our oldest sons have attended the U, two of them have graduated from the U, and our second oldest son, Christian, is graduating from the U’s School of Dentistry in May. His wife, Taylor, went to BYU so theirs’ is a similar story to ours.”
Barbara: “Matt loved the baby U of U sweatshirt so much and thought it was so cute that he held onto it, and although we’ve moved several times, he’s always had it in his bottom drawer, saving it for our first grandchild. This past Christmas Eve when our son, Christian, and daughter-in-law, Taylor, announced that they are going to have a baby, Matt ran upstairs, got the sweatshirt and gave it to them.”
Matthew: “Our son had no idea we were holding onto it. I think he remembers the sweatshirt because his sister wore it. We hope that they will keep the sweatshirt and pass it on to keep the tradition alive.”
Barbara: “I think they will. The funny thing is, we just had a baby shower for Taylor and my mother gave her a baby BYU sweatshirt, so now, once again, the baby will have fanwear from both rival schools!”
—Matthew Brown, B.A. ’82, B.S. ’83; Barbara Jones Brown, M.S. ’12; Christian Brown, DDS’ 21