No one believes Mary Jane Wiley Fuschetto ’71 and Rocco Fuschetto ’71 when the couple says they practically met and got engaged on the same day. But that’s exactly what happened on the first day of freshman orientation in 1967.

It’s a story that they have told hundreds of times before, so they know it by heart.

The Fuschettos are one of more than 8,000 alumni couples who met at UD and spent their lives together. They are excited to share their story in an upcoming endeavor, The Oral History Project, a new initiative the Alumni Association is starting this fall with the company Publishing Concepts,  where alumni can share their UD stories to be preserved for future generations of Flyers. Alumni can share educational journeys, how they met their spouse, a funny memory or even their most epic prank.

Because stories like the Fuschettos’ need to be remembered.

Mary Jane recalled the exact day she met the man she’s now been married to for 52 years. She was wearing her signature freshman beanie, something every freshman on campus was required to wear in the late 1960s. She and her roommate, Debby Dryden Collins ’71, walked into the dining hall of Marycrest for breakfast. 

Then, she saw him. 

Rocco was a soccer player from Italy and incredibly handsome, she remembered. He smiled at her, and she immediately turned to Debby and said, “There goes the man I’m going to marry.”

Mary Jane knew she had to talk to Rocco, so she slid into a chair at his table and asked him to pass the ketchup.

 “I thought that would start a conversation because I had pancakes on my plate!” laughed Mary Jane.

He looked at her with utter confusion, smiled again, and turned back to his conversation. Mary Jane quickly realized, he had no idea what she had just said.

She thought, “I’ve got to find out what language he speaks. I had no clue,” she said.

Later that afternoon, she spotted Rocco in a lecture hall as she sat down to take her Spanish placement exam. The professor administering the exam began yelling at him because he had arrived late. When Rocco did not respond after several attempts, the professor began yelling in Spanish and Rocco immediately turned around. 

“He spoke Spanish! Now I knew how I could talk to him,” said Mary Jane.

As he came up the stairs, he was eyeing a seat in the row behind Mary Jane. She knew she couldn’t let that happen, so she did what she had to do — stuck her foot out and tripped him. His books went flying from his arms onto the floor and the lecture hall erupted into laughter. 

When he looked up, Mary Jane said, “Hay un asiento aqui, si quiere.” (There’s a seat here if you want). And he did.

After they both finished the exam, Rocco invited her to a soccer match on the field at University Hall. Following the game, the two took a bus back to campus and went to a party nearby in the student neighborhood. 

“On Kiefaber,” said Rocco. “It was my roommate’s brother’s apartment. We talked the whole night at the party — just sat and talked in Spanish.”

As Rocco walked her home later that night before the nuns in Marycrest found her out past curfew, he took a chance.

“He kissed me like I’d never been kissed before,” said Mary Jane. “He said, ‘You’re the kind of girl I want to marry,’ and I remember saying, ‘I thought you’d never ask. What took you so long?’” From then on, Mary Jane and Rocco considered themselves engaged.

“He said, ‘You’re the kind of girl I want to marry,’ and I remember saying, ‘I thought you’d never ask. What took you so long?’”

The couple waited until after graduation to officially tie the knot on June 26, 1971. This summer they celebrated their 52nd wedding anniversary with their five children and 11 grandchildren. They recently purchased a small cabin on Willow Lake, Alaska, while their primary home is in Aztec, New Mexico.

Rocco said, even in the Alaskan wilderness, they “haven’t seemed to get tired of their conversations.”

And sometimes, they’re in Spanish.