While the love for SEC basketball and karaoke may have bonded the couple, it was a stroke of fate through a dating app that sparked romance between Alexander City native Lynden Blake and Ohio’s Chad Balyo.

Blake, a reporter for WBRC at the time, met Balyo when she noticed something unusual in his dating profile a photo with a mutual Alexander City connection. The photo initiated a conversation between the two, but a playful bet on an SEC Championship basketball game brought them together to meet face to face.