Hey Noodles, What’s in a Name? (August 2020)

Woodard Media Group University of Texas El Paso August 1, 2020February 26, 2022 1 Minute

*From August, 1976, here’s a shot of the UTEP equipment managers and trainers under Hall of Famer Ross Moore.*

As a 9^th grader, former UTEP student equipment manager Albert Veyita stood a towering 4-3 and weighed all of 63 pounds.

“The basketball coach at Coronado High started calling me Noodles, on Day 1,” Veyita says. “I’ve been called that ever since.”

*Albert Veyita more recently at SMU, shown with President George W. Bush.*

For Veyita, that’s not the only thing that stuck. He enrolled at UTEP and started serving as a student equipment manager in 1976, and didn’t leave Texas Mountain U. until 1983. From there, Albert has made a career out of athletic gear, with a path through the now-defunct U.S. Football League, the NFL and college athletics.

Today, he follows the Miners while living in Dallas, where he works at SMU in – yes – socks, jocks and T-shirts.