Mary Ann Vaughan thought she'd be home in an hour.

It was a Friday night in January 2010, and Vaughan had just concluded another demanding early-semester week as a uWaterloo Economics professor. But instead of enjoying a relaxing start to the weekend at home with her equally-busy husband David (a mathematics professor at Wilfrid Laurier University), Vaughan decided to answer a personal appeal from one of her students.

John Zelenbaba knew his Macroeconomics professor was a hockey fan, and he knew that the Waterloo Warriors' annual staff and alumni game was impending. Zelenbaba, then in his first year as a Warriors goaltender, thought the match was made in heaven. So he approached Vaughan after class one day with an invitation to their game that Friday.

Vaughan likely thought there were better – and certainly warmer – ways for her to spend a Friday night than at the frigid Columbia Icefield Arena, on a campus where she already spent the bulk of her waking hours. But Zelenbaba had taken the time to invite her, so she thought she could take the time to show up, at least for part of the game. "I felt it would be rude not to go," she'd say later.

She settled into a bleacher seat shortly before the 7:30 puck drop, checked a few emails on her BlackBerry, and glanced around at the less-than-half filled arena. She planned to stay for the first period, thus fulfilling Zelenbaba's request. She thought she'd be home in an hour.

As it turns out, she hasn't left the arena since.

As the story goes, it took Mary Ann Vaughan one period – 20 minutes – to fall in love with Waterloo Warriors hockey. But in truth, it was probably much less than that. Soon, her Friday night plans had changed.

"I probably sat there with my mouth wide open for the whole period," said Vaughan with a laugh – a sound that often accompanies her words. "I emailed my husband at the end of the first period and told him I was staying for the whole game. I was hooked."
It's November 6, 2014, and Warriors head coach Brian Bourque has summoned Vaughan to his office for a brief meeting. It's been nearly half a decade since that Friday night in January 2010, and as she'll proudly tell you – or anyone, for that matter – that she hasn't missed a home game since. The subject of the meeting, as far as Vaughan knows, is for the coach and his team to express thanks to some of their more impactful donors.

Soon after Vaughan started supporting the hockey program with her heart, she started supporting them with her chequebook. She began by patronizing the clothing fundraisers that equipment Manager Trevor Black, another of Vaughan's former students, would distribute (Vaughan now has an impressive collection of black and gold swag adorning her office on the first floor of Hagey Hall). Then came the sponsorship of a player or two (or three) in the Warriors' annual golf tournament at the end of training camp. And then, she enrolled in the Adopt-a-Warrior program, which she insists was a two-week rotating adoption of every member of the team. "Someone once asked me, 'which one did you adopt?'" said Vaughan. "But you can't choose amongst your children!"

More recently, her contributions have taken an even more impactful turn. She decided to redirect her entire uWaterloo donation portfolio to the Warriors' men's hockey program, which led to the creation of the Mary Ann Vaughan Academic Financial Award – in colloquial terms, a scholarship that will help cover tuition costs for a men's hockey player every year. She even amended her last will and testament – with the full blessing and support of David and their daughter Jennifer – to create an endowment that will fund her award in perpetuity.

The award package she's bankrolled would be extraordinary if it was donated by a hockey alumnus, but it's especially unique coming from a faculty member. It's no wonder that Bourque wants to thank her personally, but the stealthy coach has other plans.

November 6, 2014 also happens to be Mary Ann Vaughan's 60^th birthday, which is a number you wouldn't guess if you saw her in the gym, pre-dawn, squatting nearly 300 pounds with her personal trainer. Weightlifting is nearly as much of a passion for Vaughan as the hockey team is, and she can move iron with the same aptitude as many of the Warriors football players that she teaches.

She makes her way into Bourque's office in the late afternoon with the intention of a quick chat, a quiet night at home, and a birthday weekend spent exactly where she wants it to be spent – the Warriors play at home that Friday and Saturday night, and Vaughan will be bundled up at the rink for both games. Bourque greets her in full warmup gear and skates, and he invites Vaughan to come out to the bench and catch the last few minutes of practice.

"I wasn't suspicious at all," said Vaughan. "All of a sudden, the whole team skates over to the bench and they start singing 'Happy Birthday.' I turn around and (head athletic therapist) Jackie (McCarl) is there with a cake, and candles, and the whole nine yards. That Mr. Bourque, he played it so well. He could be a spy.

"If I live to be a hundred and sixty, I will never forget that day."
 
On an early morning in January 2010, the Monday following Zelenbaba's invitation, Vaughan has added a new task to her start-of-the-week to-do list: she needs to find out who was responsible for the jaw-dropping brand of hockey she saw for the first time some 36 hours prior. A quick check of the UW directory later, and Vaughan is composing her first-ever email to Brian Bourque.

"I knew the caliber of hockey was obviously very high," said Vaughan. "But I also knew in the way they played that they must be well-coached. And as a faculty member, I know that these are all very smart boys. I emailed John (Zelenbaba) and told him how much I loved the game, and I felt compelled to let Brian know, too."

Much to Vaughan's surprise, her inbox soon contained a response from Bourque. As she became a staple at games over the next season, her email exchanges with Bourque became more regular. Vaughan would send quick notes, usually of congratulations or encouragement, and she says Bourque was always quick to respond.
 

He was also quick to help Vaughan, the team's newest superfan, look the part. He sent Black over to her office with a Warriors jersey she could wear, and ensured Vaughan would be warm at the chilly barn with a hockey helmet-style fleece hat, complete with Warriors logos. If the regulars at the Columbia Icefield didn't notice her before, they would now.

On a sprawling campus like uWaterloo's, Hagey Hall and the Columbia Icefield might as well be in different area codes. So while the coach and professor obviously had a good rapport, it took a while for the two to actually meet face-to-face. Once they did, it only strengthened the relationship.

"If I had something to say, I started sending Brian an email here or there," said Vaughan, who grinned and added (as if she had to) that she's never been a shy person. "I had not met Brian in person at that time. We just had some email contact, and he was always generous in responding. But it took us several years for us to actually shake hands."  

Bourque didn't need to meet Vaughan to know that her brand of support is unique in CIS hockey circles. He played for Dalhousie University during his four-year undergraduate career, he suited up for York University while in grad school, and is now in his twelfth season behind Waterloo's bench (the first two as an assistant coach, before assuming the program's reigns in 2005). In nearly twenty years around university hockey, Bourque has never seen this kind of backing – especially from a faculty member.

"Her contributions have grown year-by-year," said Bourque. "The emotional support she offers, and knowing that there's someone within our university that cares and comes to our games, I think that's exciting. She spreads the word, and she's an outgoing person. It's great to have a buzz on campus, and she's definitely part of that."
 
When the subject of her team's head coach comes up with Vaughan, she sits up a little straighter in her chair. Vaughan knows Bourque's impact on the team, the campus, and the community can't be measured by wins and losses, and if it was, he'd still have a glowing reputation (his all-time head coaching record is 157-80-20-5). But Vaughan also knows about the rigors of being a student at one of the finest post-secondary institutions in the country, and she knows that the team's emphasis on academics starts in the head coach's office. 

The numbers speak for themselves: Since Bourque took over, the team's academic average has jumped a dozen percentage points, from 67% to 79%. The number of Academic All-Canadians has also exploded, and twelve of the 24 players earned that status with an average of 80% or greater in 2013-14. So when a respected professor like Vaughan sees the academic results coupled with the high quality of hockey that Bourque's team plays, it becomes easy for her to put her support – and her cash – behind the program.

"You can recruit bright people," said Vaughan. "But the fact that these boys have maintained their GPAs, while playing a varsity sport, it can only happen if the coach has a philosophy in place. It would be easy enough for the coach to just coach hockey and leave the academics to someone else, or to the students themselves. Brian doesn't think that way though. He understands that you can't just be a good hockey player here, you have to be a good student. Many of these boys aren't going to play hockey after they graduate, but they all have to make a living. And that attitude impresses the hell out of me.

"Brian doesn't get enough credit at this institution for what he does."

It's October 24, 2014 – just 13 days before her 60^th birthday surprise at the rink – and Mary Ann Vaughan is about as far away as she can get from her usual Friday night spot behind the glass in the Northeast corner of the Columbia Icefield Arena.

She's on Bloor Street in Toronto, walking from the hotel room she'd commissioned for the evening towards Varsity Arena, the home of the University of Toronto Varsity Blues. The faces are friendly, if not familiar – one passerby even guided her in the right direction. But she'll soon be amongst her extended family, because Mary Ann Vaughan is attending her first Warriors road game.

Clad in her custom gold 1974 throwback jersey (with number 27 on the back, to pay homage to her childhood hero Frank Mahovlich), Vaughan found a seat behind her team's bench and beamed with pride. Soon, she was joined by perhaps the only other pair rooting on the Warriors in enemy territory – the aunt and uncle of Waterloo defenceman Mike Moffat.

Except for the occasional fan club bus trip, CIS fanbases don't exactly travel well – or at all, really. Since road support is generally limited to family members, players and coaches take notice when they get the kind of backing Vaughan provided that evening.

"She sat right by our bench," remembers Warriors captain Joe Underwood. "All the guys were talking after the warm-up that she was there. It's not very often in this league that you see a visiting team's jersey in the stands, so seeing her there was definitely a good feeling for all of us in the room. The guys always notice when she is there, and regardless of our success on the ice, she is always there cheering us on and providing her support." 

"Things weren't going great with the team at that moment," added Vaughan, who watched the Warriors lose 4-1 to the Blues in what was the first of six straight losses earlier this season. "But Joe mentioned to me later on that the guys noticed me at that game, and even though they lost, there I was. I didn't think anyone had noticed at all, but when Joe mentioned that they saw me there, I was touched by that."

Vaughan will be making one more road trip this winter, as she plans to catch the Warriors take on the Ryerson Rams at the Mattamy Athletic Centre – formerly Maple Leaf Gardens ("I haven't been in that building for decades," she says). And in the future, she wants to find her way to even more away games, because Vaughan simply cannot get enough of these Warriors.

It would be theoretically possible – albeit not easy – to measure Vaughan's commitment to the Warriors hockey program in both dollars and hours. And make no mistake, each number would be astronomical. But it would also short-change Vaughan's lasting impact on the program and the men within it, even if she's too modest to say so herself. To her, the team has given her as much as she has given them.

"They're so appreciative, just demonstrably appreciative," says Vaughan. "I am so thrilled to be even tangentially involved with this organization. There has really been no downside to this, and I feel so good about it. This whole thing has just been an incredible experience for me."

And to think, she planned on being home in an hour.