Wedding Bells Chime for Bronco Couples

By Mileen Zarin

Mary Modeste Smoker, from the class of '81, didn't wait long after graduation before she tied the knot with another Bronco.

"I was all about being independent and doing my own thing, but maybe because I wasn't looking is why I met Jeff," Smoker said. "Six weeks after graduation, we got married at the Mission Church."

Smoker is one of the 6,248 alumni who are married to another Santa Clara grad. That's 14 percent of alumni, a number which is 5 percent higher than the national average.

"All three of my sisters were married at the Mission. Two married fellow Broncos and well, one of my sisters divorced; he was a Bronco gone bad," said Smoker.

Roughly 9 percent of married couples met while in college, according to a 2010 study from a Stanford sociologist. Meanwhile, Broncos are flocking to the Mission Church in droves.

In order to schedule a wedding at the Mission Church, the bride and/or the groom must be a current student, staff, faculty or graduate of the university. 

"The current average is that 3.5 out of ten weddings at the Mission have been between two Santa Clara Alumni," said Ginny Pauksta, administrative coordinator at the Mission Church.

This year alone, there have been 74 weddings in the Mission, and 20 of them have been between Broncos.

"I'm not exactly sure why Broncos tend to gravitate toward each other, but I think it has to do with the common values and experiences you share with one another during such a significant part of your life," said Smoker.

The university hasn't overlooked the high rates of marriage. At this year's Grand Reunion, the Alumni Association hosted a new event called "Broncos Meeting Broncos" to promote the intermingling of graduates.

"Over the last few years we have had a couple of requests in our Grand Reunion post-event survey to have a singles event," said Maureen Muscat, who oversaw the Grand Reunion. "We were nervous to try it. What if no one showed up? What if people thought it was silly?"

Their concerns proved unfounded. Over 70 people attended the cocktail event, double what the planning committee had expected.

It's not uncommon for alumni to meet after they went to Santa Clara together. Some didn't even know each other until after school.

"My husband was a senior when I was a freshman and we didn't even get to know each other until after the GI Bill passed and he came home from Vietnam," said Barbara Colyar, class of '72 and Santa Clara's former director of Study Abroad. "When he returned to Santa Clara for his law degree, we ended up connecting through mutual friends." The two worked at the same restaurant and bar, named The Loft, which used to be in what is now Santana Row.
"The rest is history," said Colyar.

What remains to be seen is how this trend will look as the current generation of college students progresses. In fact, the U.S. Census Bureau found that the percentage of 18-29 year olds who get married has decreased drastically. In 1960, 59 percent of these young adults got married. Last year, that number dropped to 20 percent.

Contact Mileen Zarin at
mzarin@scu.edu or call
(408) 554-4852.