Victor Rueda, an eighth-generation El Pasoan and a lifelong UTEP fan, grew up in a special time for the Miners. The basketball team knocked off Kentucky in the historic 1966 NCAA Championship while the football team peeled off three straight winning seasons that culminated with a 14-7 victory over SEC member Ole Miss at the 1967 Sun Bowl.
"My mother's youngest sister and the only surviving sibling of my mother's (who passed a number of years ago), graduated from TWC in 1963 and never missed a home basketball game in 1966. I was 10, 11 years old in a pretty golden time for UTEP sports. We all pretended to be Billy Stevens as the quarterback when we were playing football and pretended to be Bobby Joe Hill when we were shooting baskets. It solidified my position as a Miner fan early on and (I've) just enjoyed it ever since."
His connection to the school only grew stronger when he enrolled to pursue an undergraduate degree in finance, something he looks back on as a foundational building block for his life.
"For me, beyond the realm of sports, if UTEP hadn't been here the chance of me getting a college degree would have much more daunting," Rueda said. "At UTEP, what starts here changes lives. (There's) no question that college degree for me changed the trajectory of my life, and I met my wife of 46 years, Roseanne, at UTEP too!"
Rueda went on to have an extremely successful career, with the bulk of it in human resources.
"I was the vice president of human resources and safety for Western Refining," Rueda said. "When I joined Western, it was a holding company. There were a couple of dozen employees. And when we merged with Tesoro to form Andeavor, we had five refineries and 12,000 employees. So, it was a wild ride. In the last six years of my career, I finished out as Vice President of Human Resources and Safety for El Paso Electric."
Throughout his accomplishments in his own life, Rueda remained an engaged UTEP supporter, even during the time he was away from the Sun City. Once he got back, he's been a fixture in the stands. There's been plenty of moments that have made indelible imprints, but a couple moments for him really stick out.
"When BYU was the defending national champion, and we beat them here in the Sun Bowl (was incredible)," Rueda said. "That following Monday, (by chance) I had a meeting in Salt Lake City with a bunch of guys who are all BYU alums and boosters. I put on my El Dorado Club booster jacket with the UTEP logo on (to show off for the Miners)."
He also has a fun memory following UTEP's upset of top-seed Kansas in the second round of the 1992 NCAA Tournament
"A lady who was in our wedding (she remains a lifelong friend of my wife Roseanne) was attending law school at Kansas," Rueda said. "She's a UTEP undergrad, so before the game she called and said 'I just hope our Miners don't get embarrassed.' So, we had a lot of fun calling her up to say, hey, I hope you weren't too embarrassed by the Miners when they snuck back into the Sweet 16."
A few years later, when his sons were old enough to start attending games, the Miners stunned BYU again, and an epic celebration ensued.
"We were up in the stands when the goalposts got torn down a second time." Rueda said. "We didn't get close to helping, but it was a real thrill for my sons to see the goalposts getting torn down, carried out and thrown out of the stadium."
In lots of cities when a team is not playing up to its expectations, fans simply quit on it. With supporters like Rueda, however, because they're personally invested and want them to succeed, the passion remains. Rueda believes it's something that separates UTEP from other fan bases and thinks it says a lot about the people in the Sun City.
"I think that really is a testament to El Paso," Rueda said. "One thing I did in my HR career when we were talking to companies about moving to El Paso (as part of some of his work with the Chamber of Commerce), is tell them that one unique thing about El Pasoans is that they're loyal. They're loyal employees, they're loyal fans, they're loyal friends. We're a unique place, we stick up for each other."
With the Miners joining Mountain West beginning with the 2026-27 season, it's safe to say that the next five years are vital. Rueda has some hopes and expectations for what UTEP needs to get done, specifically with men's basketball and football.
"We got to get back into the NCAA tournament. I'm not Pollyanna enough to say we're going to ever win that thing again, but we have to be in the hunt. We haven't been in the hunt for a long time. On the football side, it's a tougher compete for us. We have to have some winning seasons. We've got to get to a bowl game between now and then."
Rueda's challenge for the way other Miner fans can help the teams achieve success, aside from also becoming donors, is to get out to the games and make the Sun Bowl and the Haskins Center some of the toughest places to play at.
"Even in the new Mountain West, the size of our facilities are bigger than most," Rueda said. "If we're filling up the Sun Bowl, if we're filling up the Don Haskins Center, that's going to that's going to translate into more donations."
He supports the move to the Mountain West and understands the importance of the upcoming year.
"I think it's great," Rueda said. "The opportunity, it's an easier travel if you want to pick up an out of town game. Certainly, Albuquerque is easy (to get to), but we've got to compete when we go into the Mountain West. This year is a pivotal year or Miner athletics."
Win or lose, Rueda is behind the Orange and Blue.
"UTEP is El Paso's school," Rueda said. "The connections between the university and the city are strong. I haven't given up on Miner sports, and I certainly want to see them succeed."
