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From This Day: Couple connect through love of sports

 
Since he first saw Angela Hall in the gym, Brandan Teague was her biggest fan. The couple connected through a love of sports, especially college football.
Since he first saw Angela Hall in the gym, Brandan Teague was her biggest fan. The couple connected through a love of sports, especially college football.
Published Oct. 25, 2014

TOWN 'N COUNTRY — It's amazing Brandan Teague didn't pull a muscle straining to stare at Angela Hall working out at the University of Tampa gym.

"Everybody noticed her," said Teague, who played third base and pitched for UT in 2008-09. Eyeing Hall certainly reduced his teammates' complaints during those grueling workouts.

Hall wasn't exactly oblivious to the attention, but stayed focused on her trainer, who arranged for the former cheerleader to use the campus gym. A year or so later, he coincidentally invited them both to participate in his running club. That's where Teague finagled an introduction.

"I knew I loved her the minute I saw this beautiful woman drop an Invisalign retainer . . . pour water over it and pop it back in her mouth," said Teague, now 27, a financial adviser at the Principal Financial Group.

One morning in 2012, they ditched the run and went out for breakfast. Teague managed to refrain from staring as they got acquainted. Hall, 34, attended four high schools before her dad retired from the military. At Florida State, she majored in criminal justice and now works as a personal assistant to a Tampa entrepreneur.

Like the two athletes, the relationship moved fast.

"We have the same exact interests," she said. "We like biking, fishing, golfing, doing triathlons, and every Saturday, it's college football. On our bucket list is to pick a random game every year and go to experience their college traditions."

In January, the couple flew to the Rose Bowl for the BCS National Championship in Pasadena, Calif. Hall rooted for the Seminoles and Teague for Auburn, where he played baseball for two years before transferring to UT.

"He was a good loser," she teases, "but then he won when he married me."

Teague took matters into his own hands when the time came to meet his future mother-in-law. He surprised her and showed up at the Kapok Tree Special Events Center & Gardens in Clearwater, where she has been the wedding planner for about 15 years.

"I walked in and there was this loud, Italian woman in a red coat," Teague said. "I said, 'Ah, you must be Nancy Hall.' "

Mrs. Hall grilled him for two hours — "even demanded my Social Security number," he said. Then she spun him around, "admired my butt" and pronounced him a keeper.

Says Teague, beaming, "She said, " 'I really like you, whatever Angela does.' "

The proposal came at the Masters Tournament in Augusta, Ga., in April 2013 in front of blooming azaleas and a cheering throng.

"He's down on one knee in somebody's video somewhere," Hall said.

For two days, Teague carried the ring deep in his pocket, while moving among 10 pubs to play bar golf — and even sleeping with it. They celebrated with beer, Augusta National pimento sandwiches and a cigar, he said.

Nancy Hall took the reins from there.

"I trust my mom completely," the bride said. "All I told her was the flowers I liked (peonies); the colors (champagne-ivory-blush) and the style of dress (mermaid). And everything was exactly how I wanted it."

The Rev. Rick Lackore officiated June 7 for 180 guests gathered at the Kapok Tree, followed by dinner, dancing to a DJ and an outdoor after-party dubbed Teague's Tavern.

The newlyweds honeymooned in Chicago, where the groom was born, but the bride had never been.

"We went to five pizza places, ate eight kinds of hot dogs and watched a Cubs game," she said.

Now, with a baby boy due in March, Mr. and Mrs. Teague are gearing up for the biggest triathlon of all: parenthood.

Contact Amy Scherzer at ascherzer@tampabay.com or (813) 226-3332.