Sul Ross Lobo Sweethearts

For many alumni, Sul Ross State University was not just the institution where they earned degrees and got started on their careers. It was also the place where they met the loves of their lives.

Dedicated to those who attended Sul Ross State University, who met each other while on campus or in later years and were eventually married. In this special webpage, these sweethearts are married couples who both attended Sul Ross and shared their Sul Ross Lobo Sweetheart story with us!

William Mannecke '73 and Susan (Hahn) Mannecke

I met my sweetheart at Sul Ross in 1973. Though I knew her previously, we only started dating during the Fall Semester of 1973. I was commissioned a USAF 2Lt in May of 1974 at the Sul Ross AFROTC Detachment. We were married July 1974.

Thirty three years later, after a twenty one year USAF career, I am a pilot for FedEx and we are still happily married. We have two children and twin six month old grand babies.

Our Wedding Date: July 1974
Years Married: 33

Gene Ersch and Mabel (Varela) Ersch '80

I (Mabel) started SR in the summer of 1975 and Gene attended SR in January 1977 and we met on the 12^th of January 1977. We were both involved in the SR band and he was active with the TKE fraternity, and I was a member of the sister organization of TKE called the Order of Diana. We dated and got engaged for a year in school and then for another year when he went back home to work and I graduated.

Time apart and distance brought an end to our romance. Twelve years went by and we each went on with our own lives. He married and divorced and moved back to Fredericksburg where his family is from.

I lived in Alpine for a time after graduation then an opportunity to work at UTEP came along and moved to El Paso in 1984. In the summer of 1991 my mother and I were on our way to San Antonio and stopped in Fredericksburg where he is originally from, and visited with his family and Gene was there, we exchanged phone numbers and addresses but there were no cell phones and email at this time yet. We began our communicating by telephone and writing actual letters and visited each other when we could, this was long distance dating, and it was like we picked up where we left, and no years had passed.

We married in September 12, 1992, lived in Fredericksburg for a time and decided we wanted to move somewhere new and picked Tucson, we love it here, and it is a beautiful place and have lived here for 14 wonderful years. We feel that fate and God intervened for us. Somehow we were meant to be apart for that time so that when we found each other again it was for good and for sure. We look back and say to one another we knew each other as a young man/woman and have seen us age together, it’s nice to have the history together and knowing the same people we knew and we think about our friends we had then and lost touch with and wonder how life has been to them, we love each other more everyday and are thankful to God for all of his blessings in our lives and how he has helped us with the hardships life throws at you, but having one another makes life so much better.

Our Wedding Date: September 12, 1992
Years Married: 15.5

See more Sweetheart stories:
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