Love during Hate Week: Texas Exes prepare for the return of Lone Star Showdown

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- For the first time as Southeastern Conference rivals, Texas and Texas A&M will face each other on the football field. It's been over a decade since these two teams have played, but now the Lone Star Showdown returns. Two Texas Exes have a love story that started on The 40 Acres, came back together during a game in College Station, and continues in Houston.

Terry Williams said, "Texas, we're not preaching all that hate. We love ours too much to have room in our hearts to hate yours." It can seem strange to talk about love leading up to one of college football's most heated rivalries. It makes sense only when you go back to 2006 and learn how Terry and Ashley Williams met.

"He was a junior," Ashley said, "I was a freshman. We met at an organization called Every Nation Campus Ministries. He was the president of the organization. I heard him speaking, and I was like, 'Who's that guy?'"

They stayed friends for over a year until Terry became Ashey's first boyfriend. They fell in love on the 40 acres during the Mack Brown and Colt McCoy era. The team's winning tradition led Terry and Ashley to make some of their own. Ashley remembered going to Pluckers before the game. "We always ate at Pluckers and then headed right down 21st Street to the stadium," she said.

Their attempt at a future took a timeout when Terry returned to Houston after graduation, and Ashley moved to New York to work on Wall Street. Their relationship was sidelined for a year and a half until the 2011 rivalry game the Longhorns won in College Station. Terry said, "The night we got back together was the final game between Texas and Texas A&M in the Big 12."

The Williams have been married for 12 years and have a team of their own: Rhys, Trenton, and Terry. "Our 8-year-old, he is a soccer superstar," Terry said. So, hey, who knows? We might have a little Longhorn athlete."

They're also small business owners. Terry opened a gym, and Ashley used her McCombs School of Business degree to run the business side. The League has three locations: two in Houston and one in the Austin area, where everything for this family started. "One thing we say at Texas is, 'What starts here changes the world,' and it most certainly changed our world," said Ashley.

On Saturday, the Williams will introduce their young team to a Texas tradition they've never seen before-our state's greatest rivalry game.

You can watch Texas take on Texas A&M November 30 at 6:30 P.M. on ABC13.