SAN ANTONIO — Leti Contreras remembers meeting her husband, Tom, for the first time outside a bar that once resided on the St. Mary's University campus.

Now married 24 years, the San Antonio couple has committed $1.12 million to their alma mater, with most of the donation — $900,000 — going toward the construction of an on-campus watering hole.

Plans for the project are preliminary. Construction is set to start in the fall with two buildings being added to the Louis J. Blume Library, said Rick Kimbrough, vice president at the university. In one building, there will be a 1,200-square-foot bar with TVs and stage for live music. Next door, plans call for an 800-square-foot recreational space, which will have amenities such as couches, TVs and billiards. The project also will consist of an outdoor stage for live performances and patio space.

The remainder of the gift is slated to benefit the university's golf team.

The aim of their gift is to re-create the spirit that once resonated from the bar, increasing the quality of campus life.

“We wanted to help St. Mary's go to another level and attract quality students,” said Tom Contreras. “We just need to bring back that community atmosphere on campus. Some our best memories were right here on campus. And with the pub, that's what we're trying to bring back.”

The university's original bar, simply known as The Pub, opened in the early 1970s and closed in the late 80s, according to a university official. It was here students would gather to listen to music, eat pizza and, of course, down a few drinks with friends or maybe even a professor.

And it was there that the young undergraduate Leti Contreras consumed enough liquid courage one night to approach the finance major and golfer who would become her husband. He wasn't hard to miss due to his nifty unibrow.

“I remember just catching a glimpse of him,” said Leti Contreras, who graduated from the university in 1989. “Tom had a unique feature about himself back then, which was like a unibrow. I was kind of attracted to that. I just thought that was unique.

“And so I put on my brave face and went up to him, and said I wanted to meet him. While at that point he wasn't that interested, through continuous weekly visits to The Pub, it eventually turned into what it is today.”

“It just always seemed like The Pub was a place to congregate irrespective of what you belonged to,” said Tom Contreras, who is the CEO of Texas Security General Insurance Agency. “And it just brought our college community together.”

The new pub project is scheduled for completion by fall 2015, and the amount earmarked is expected to cover the cost without any additional funds required from the university or an outside source, Kimbrough added.

The bar is expected to serve beer, wine and food. It hasn't been determined who will operate the pub or if it will offer liquor. The university plans to work together with the student body to determine design, amenities for the project and name for the pub.

“It gives us that place that everyone was looking for,” said Luke Villafranca, 22, a graduate student at St. Mary's. “We usually have to drive a ways away when we go out. If we can have something extra in our own backyard, it would be even more convenient. It's really going to bring life to campus.”

The idea for a bar on campus is nothing new. Universities around the nation have them. Locally, Trinity University, which doesn't currently have a pub, has had bars come in and out of existence throughout the years. The University of Texas at San Antonio sells alcoholic beverages through a national vendor on campus.

“It's pretty common for colleges and universities to have a place for students to go,” said Kimbrough. “It teaches the issue of being responsible with alcohol in addition to getting a good place for students to interact and just have fun.”

Though the first pub at St. Mary's has been closed for more than two decades, David Winkley, an alum who used to hang out there with the Contrerases, has fond memories of the dark crowded bar where he would throw back Bud Light with his fraternity brothers and fellow students.

“That was the benefit of the pub — everyone knew everybody,” he said. “And that was nice.”

As for the unibrow, well, Tom Contreras says it's long gone.

vlucio@express-news.net