Matthew Pate and Christine Hall

Jan 28, 2022

The Shoe Tree near Pogue Library — The Shoe Tree is located outside Pogue Library and is an ongoing tradition for couples who met at Murray State and went on to get married.

Matthew Pate and I met in Racer Band in 1996 and went out on our first date a year later. Even though we were in different majors—him engineering physics and me journalism—we ended up spending a lot of time together as members of the music fraternities, Phi Mu Alpha and Sigma Alpha Iota. After graduation, Matt moved to Houston for work, and I went to graduate school in Ohio. We were long-distance for two years, but kept going strong. Matt proposed in late 2000, and we were married in Lexington in May 2002. In 2020, we will celebrate 18 years of marriage! We have two children in middle school. We returned to Murray State last November for the Racer Band reunion, and it was amazing to walk around the place where we fell in love 23 years earlier!

Matthew Pate and Christine Hall

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