Maverick Match: A Love Story That Added Up

Nick '20 and Shelby '21 Brown met in math class. The rest is Maverick history.

Nick Brown ‘20 had heard all the stories about meeting a best friend in college who then becomes your partner. And for Nick and his now wife Shelby ‘21, the stories proved true.  

But at the beginning, it wasn’t so clear. Nick transferred to Minnesota State Mankato from UMD to finish his Exercise Science degree. At the time, he was in a long-distance relationship. That all changed the second week of classes when he walked into math class.  

“We were in a group together and at the end of the lesson I would always make jokes, and she would laugh at them,” he recalls. "We ended up being in the same degree and had many classes together and as the friendship grew to being best friends, I started falling for her. Little did I know, she was falling for me.”  

Nick remembers helping Shelby move from one apartment to another and meeting her mom who, “pulled me aside and said, ‘you know, my daughter is single.’”  

Nick had a crush but ended his long-distance relationship before he worked up the courage to tell Shelby how he felt. Shelby felt the same and made a crack about not speaking up sooner because she wasn’t a “homeworker.” The two laughed and shortly after started dating.  

"All my friends loved Shelby as did I and I built a relationship with her whole family. We graduated, and I asked her to marry me.”  

The two will celebrate their five-year wedding anniversary in September 2027 and have a two-and-a-half-year-old daughter. Their love led them from campus to a small hobby farm where they plan to build their dream home.  

“You never know who you might meet in college," Nick says. “It just took courage and guts to find MY happiness, and it all worked out in the end.”