Chip and Joanna Gaines Attended the Same College… But Didn’t Meet Until Years Later
Chip Gaines and Joanna Gaines have been married for two decades and built an impressive empire from their HGTV show, and it all started when the Fixer Upper stars first met at a tire shop. The famous couple actually attended the same college, but never ran into each other on campus. Here’s what we know about Chip and Joanna’s university and how they finally found each other.
Chip and Joanna Gaines went to the same college, but they never crossed paths
Fixer Upper stars Chip and Joanna Gaines attended the same college, but the couple never met on campus. They both graduated from Baylor University, a private Christian college in Waco, Texas. Chip earned his degree in marketing and business administration in 1998, while Joanna graduated in 2001 with a communications degree.
According to Baylor University’s website, the college named Chip and Joanna the Alumni of the Year in the fall of 2015. The honor is awarded to graduates “who have demonstrated remarkable achievement in the previous year.”
The university commended the couple for using their TV platform to bring positive attention to Waco and Baylor. “The viewers admire the Gaineses not only for their hard work and sense of style in renovating and restoring homes, but also for the authenticity of Chip and Joanna’s relationship with each other and with their clients,” the website says before praising the couple’s “talent and easy-going personalities.”
The reason Chip and Joanna never met while attending the same school is that they were only on campus together for a short time. They only shared one semester at Baylor in the fall of 1998.
Chip Gaines first met Joanna in her father’s tire shop
Chip didn’t meet Joanna for several more years after graduating from Baylor University. He told Popsugar he knew Joanna was “the one” before the Fixer Upper stars ever met. He kept returning to her father’s tire shop, hoping to run into Joanna after seeing her in a commercial for the store and spotting her photo on the wall.
“Her dad made the mistake of putting a pic of the family behind the counter at his [automotive] shop,” he said. “I knew I’d marry her one day just by the picture on the wall.”
Chip admitted that he got his car worked on frequently as an excuse to see Joanna. “My buddies used to always joke that no one could get their brakes done as often as I got my brakes done,” he said (per Country Living).
The ‘Fixer Upper’ host almost took over her father’s tire business instead of becoming a TV star
Joanna might not have pursued her goals and dreams if she had never met Chip. In a June 2019 Instagram post dedicated to her father, she revealed that she’d planned on taking over the tire shop, not becoming a TV star.
“I had the privilege of working with him for ten years at his tire shop and he taught me about these things 1st hand. I always thought I would take over his shop when he retired, this was at least the plan,” Joanna captioned a photo of her dad. “Once I met Chip I started realizing I had some hidden dreams in my heart but was scared to let my dad down. When he got wind that I was ready for something else he quickly sat me down and told me to go for it and do what my heart was telling me to do.”
Chip and Joanna may have nearly missed each other by never crossing paths at Baylor University, but their meeting at the tire shop was meant to be.
