The Oregon State Beavers may have lost to Stanford on November 5, 2011, but Southern Oregon University (SOU) student Jorden Nielsen won the hand of Brooke Evans, an alumna of Oregon State University, when Nielsen proposed during the game.
Nielsen, a former kicker for the SOU Raiders, surprised his bride-to-be with a formal proposal in the OSU stadium, just after their friends across the field held up large signs asking “Will You Marry Me?”
Nielsen is a third-year pre-nursing student at SOU and plans to become a nurse anesthetist. In 2008 he graduated from Hidden Valley High School in Murphy, where he was the Mustang’s star kicker for four years. The son of Nate and Mikell Nielsen, he and his family have lived in Williams, Oregon, for more than a decade. His twin brother Justen is a former SOU student now studying at the Musician’s Institute in Los Angeles, and his sister Carlen is in second grade at Applegate School.
Brooke Evans graduated cum laude from OSU in 2011 with a BFA in graphic design. She joined Delta Gamma Sorority; studied art in Athens, Greece; and was a graphics design intern at the OSU Foundation. While attending Grants Pass High School, she was named Outstanding Artist of the Year in both her junior and senior years. She is currently employed as a graphic designer at Fire Mountain Gems and Beads in Grants Pass. Evans’ parents are Scott and Kelly Moutsatson of Grants Pass. Her brother Brent also attends OSU, and her sister Alyssa is an eighth-grade student at South Middle School in Grants Pass.
The couple plans a September wedding in Grants Pass.