They met playing online poker. At Matthews Arena’s final game, he popped the question
Fifteen years after that chance meeting over a virtual poker table, John Murray thought the final hockey game at Matthews Arena was the perfect place to begin a new chapter.
John Murray and Deborah Miles met in the unlikeliest of places.
That is, if you think the chatroom of a Facebook poker lobby qualifies as a place.
It was 2011, and Murray, who worked at Northeastern University’s Matthews Arena in just about every capacity over the course of 25 years, would spend his evenings playing online poker with his brother and cousin.
“It was Texas Hold ’Em, the Zynga Facebook games,” he said.
One evening, he found himself chatting with Miles, a stranger living in Pennsylvania.
“She would call me her chip bully,” Murray, now 64, joked. “But we just became really good friends.”
The pair friended each other on the social media platform, where they took their conversations. They met in person in 2013 — their first official date — marking the beginning of a long-distance relationship.
Fifteen years after that chance meeting over a virtual poker table, Murray thought the final hockey game at Matthews Arena — a building that shaped his career, friendships and sense of belonging — was the perfect place to begin a new chapter.
He did what anyone with his love for the arena would have done: he reached out to Bill “Smitty” Smith, Northeastern’s longtime athletic facilities supervisor — and beloved “rink rat.”
“I mentioned to Smitty, ‘How do I get a message on the board asking Deb to marry me?’” said Murray, who studied communications and business at Northeastern. “It was my home away from home, and so it was only fitting that I asked Deb that night.”
The plan was set: Murray would pop the question midway through the game, which featured the Northeastern Huskies and the Boston University Terriers. Matthews Arena was sold out, filled with fans, graduates and former players who gathered for the final event in the storied 115-year-old building.
The moment was broadcast live and fed through the Jumbotron. As Miles spotted the TV crew, she began to wonder what all the fuss was about.
“My first thought was, ‘Oh, there must be someone important sitting behind us,’” she said.
Then Murray dropped to one knee and proposed. Naturally, the arena erupted in cheers.
“I was stunned,” Miles said. “Just a rush of emotions, with everything happening around us — it was just shock.”
Though stunned, she still said yes.
The Huskies would narrowly lose to the Terriers, 4-3.
Miles, a retired nurse, spent a career in the health field, working most recently at Lahey Hospital & Medical Center.
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Murray’s connection to Matthews Arena spans nearly his entire adult life. He’s held just about every job you can imagine: from sweeping the stands after a game, to driving the Zamboni, announcing and keeping score. He began working at the arena just months after moving to Boston from New York in 1979, shortly after Northeastern University purchased the building.
Outside the rink, Murray built a career in business, starting in accounting before transitioning into human resources. More recently, he’s worked in the addiction treatment field.
Murray remained a constant presence at Matthews over the years, officiating games for the Hockey East Association, a college ice hockey conference based in New England, as well as high school and youth leagues, and returning to the arena regularly. He watched the building evolve over time from a small ice rink into one of the country’s premier college hockey venues.
It was only fitting that the pair would make it official there. They’ve been together for 10 years now, living in Tewksbury, Massachusetts.
“The reason my proposal was that night — to me it was a metaphor: the ending of an era and the beginning of a new era,” Murray said, adding that he “shed a tear at the end of the game.”
Though her connection to Matthews isn’t as intimate as Murray’s, feelings of joy and shock mixed with sadness at the Huskies’ slim defeat.
Although not a homegrown hockey fan, Miles developed an appreciation for the sport through Murray.
“When I would come up to visit, I would always go to the hockey games with him,” she said.
The two have six children from previous marriages, as well as five grandchildren and a great-granddaughter.
“Part of the story is that you find love when you least expect it,” Miles said. “You don’t know when you’re going to meet that perfect someone.”
