Micahel And Wanda Dean’s Maroon And White Hearts
August 25, 2025 | Athletics, Bulldog Club
Mississippi State athletics means so much to longtime supporters of MSU, Michael and Wanda Dean. They're proud members of the Bulldog Club and State Excellence Fund donors whose hearts are colored with Maroon and White.
In fact, it was Bulldog sports that united those two hearts in the first place.
It was the fall of 1970. Michael had just recently moved to Mississippi from Florida to work towards a master's degree, and a neighbor invited him over on a Sunday to watch the coach's show on television following MSU football's 51-15 win over Southern Miss.
"He asked me to come over and watch the show, eat some hamburgers and just have a visit," Michael recalled.
The evening turned out to be a bit more special when Wanda also showed up for a few minutes. Wanda just so happened to be friends with Michael's friend's wife.
"I don't even know why Wanda came by," Michael recalled. "But she went on her way, and I asked [my neighbors], 'Do you think if I called [Wanda] and asked her for a date that she'd go out with me?'"
Michael got Wanda's number. He called and asked her if she'd be interested in going with him to the MSU game against Alabama the following weekend.
The good news was that she did. The bad news was Michael couldn't get a ticket, so they had to settle for a movie instead.
Nonetheless, State athletics had played its part in bringing Michael and Wanda together. (They would eventually start getting to go to games together, including the 1970 Egg Bowl that the Bulldogs won 19-14 over the Rebels.)
For more than five decades since, Michael and Wanda have been all in on State. Actually, it dates back even longer than that for Wanda.
"As a matter of fact, when I was brought home from the hospital [as a baby], I was taken to married student housing in Starkville," Wanda said. "So [my ties to MSU] go back a very long way. Mississippi State has a strong tradition in my family. My father had two degrees [from State]. I have two degrees [from State], and I am currently teaching online for Mississippi State. I'm on the board for the ACCESS Program, and we are also involved with the T.K. Martin Center."
While Wanda was born a Bulldog, Michael became one quickly once he arrived on campus in 1970. After spending a couple of years as a teacher and assistant football coach near Gainesville, Florida, Michael made the move to Mississippi to get his master's degree and be back in a place that reminded him more of the area in which he grew up.
And of course, it eventually led him to Wanda. The two made a habit of taking in the sports scene in Starkville. They'd go to basketball games. They'd sit on a blanket beyond the right-field fence and watch the Diamond Dawgs play.
So, it's little surprise that all these years later, Michael and Wanda are totally committed to doing as much as they can to help Mississippi State thrive in what's a new era of college athletics.
"Sports has brought us a lot of happiness and family time together," Michael said. "And now, the landscape is changing. So, we know it's time for us to step up and support State so we can stay competitive in this new world we're living in with things like NIL and the transfer portal. We want State to stay on top as much as we can, and this is one way that we can help."
The couple is proud to be a part of pushing MSU forward on all fronts.
"It makes me very happy that we can contribute to academics through a couple of scholarships and the ACCESS Program, and also to the sports world," Wanda said. "I'm pleased that we're fortunate enough to be able to do both rather than one or the other."
Michael and Wanda also have words of wisdom for anyone else considering contributing in any way.
"If you're able to – and obviously that's a decision each person has to make – but if they're able to, they should step up to the plate, so to speak, in any way they can," Michael said. "I would say sports, academics, all of it. We've given to the library before.
"These are all important to Mississippi State and all a part of State. The more you can help all the facets of Mississippi State, including sports which is clearly the most visible, that's another way that we can all take some pride."
Wanda says no gift is too small.
"I would encourage people to do whatever they can," Wanda said. "I think there's sometimes a reluctance on the part of those who feel they can't give enough because they see these large and incredibly wonderful gifts and think their own gift would have no meaning. But you know, it takes all of us giving a little bit to get where we need to be."
Spoken like a true lover of all things Maroon, and an incredibly valuable piece of the team behind the team.
"We have a great pride in the fact that we're State people," Michael said. "We're Bulldogs."