Five-decade Becker founding football coach Dwight Lundeen gets 400th win

BECKER — One man has meant everything to the Becker football team.

Coach Dwight Lundeen started the program in 1970, the new stadium was named after him before last season and on August 29 he won his 400th game with the Bulldogs . Since then, the team has won games 401-403 and Becker is undefeated this season heading into Week 5.

"It was a celebration night of people that have played here for 55 wins,” Lundeen said after the 51-0 Week 1 win over Hill-Murray (3-1) .

Dozens of football alumni were at the game and were honored at halftime. Organized by graduation decade, the groups spread out across the length of the field. Lundeen was in his early 20s when he started the program at Becker and he stressed the importance of every player who suited up under his tutelage.

Joking that because the team had never gone winless in a season, he said each group contributed to the success of his career. Memories came flooding back when he started to see the faces of his former players.

“We did a cheer that (started) back in 1970,” he said. “We’ve done it after every game and practice.”

The chant and response goes:

“Who’s No. 1?”

“We are!”

“What are we gonna do?”

“Win, win, win!”

And the Bulldogs have done that.

Lundeen is 403-167-3 overall in his career and has won three state titles with the team, Class 3A in 2005, and Class 4A in 2014 and 2015. His win total ranks second all-time behind 56-year Verndale coach Mike Mahlen’s record of 432-133-3. Becker has been to state 17 times, including six consecutive trips from 2001 to 2006.

Lundeen said the thing that has changed the most over five-plus decades is technology. Videoing teachable moments and relaying that information to players on film has never been easier.

Kevin Borst, who graduated in 1979 drove down from a couple hours north to watch the opening game with his brother, 1980 graduate Steven Borst. Kevin was a running back and linebacker and Steven was a tight end and safety. They remembered practicing on fields full of sandburs with a team not much more than a few dozen players strong.

“Football was the best,” Steven said. “I think coach Lundeen just convinced kids they should play. Wasn’t too hard.”

They remembered implementing a no-huddle spread offense and Kevin called the coach “innovative.” Still the coach likes that his players know the game and are creative on the team.

“(Lundeen) wanted to build a relationships and get to know you — he definitely wanted to win,” Kevin said.

After the opening win senior running back Owen Angell described Lundeen as a great leader and role model on the team.

“One of the best coaches,” classmate Isaac Daluge said. “He loves his team, his players. He’s always in a good mood. He’s just good to be around.”

There are more than two dozen seniors on Becker’s football squad and they are open about their lofty goals. The Bulldogs want to vie for the prep bowl championship.

“I feel like we are just super hungry,” junior QB Sawyer Brown said. “We felt like we could have won a state championship the last couple of years and haven’t so we’re just hungry for one.”

Angell said he expects there to be “no end” to Lundeen’s milestones.

The NFL Vikings named Lundeen its HS coach of the week after the 400th win, the latest in a series of awards that have stacked up during his 55-year career.

At the end of the last season, Lundeen was named the recipient of the John Gagliardi Legacy Award by the Minnesota Chapter of the National Football Foundation. And he’s been inducted into several halls of fame including for the Minnesota Football Coaches Association (2009), Minnesota State High School League (2014), Minnesota Activities Directors (2014) and National Coaches Association (2019).

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Again Lundeen and the Dawgs are dominant in 2024. They are 4-0 with just two touchdowns scored against them. One of the touchdowns was scored by a proven Providence Academy (3-1) team in a back-and-forth Sept. 6 game in Plymouth. Becker scored its second TD of the game in the fourth quarter to go up 13-9, which is how the defensive contest ended after an unsuccessful two-point conversion attempt.

“We were pretty clean in a lot of ways and sometimes you have first game jitters and stuff but we are a pretty veteran team,” Lundeen said after Week 1’s win. “Some of these kids have already played 20-some games because they started as sophomores and juniors and now they’re seniors.”

Last week the team blew out Willmar (0-4) but on Friday the Bulldogs play another traditional power in Hutchinson (2-2). The Tigers’ two losses are thanks to state hopefuls Totino-Grace (4-0) and ROCORI (3-1).

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Becker will have another difficult game next week in Cold Spring against the defending runner-up Spartans, which beat the Bulldogs in the last two section championships.

“Defense we’re really rock-solid but offensively we have a lot of weapons,” Lundeen said. “Probably the best weapon we have is speed. We have a lot of speed and that’s a wonderful thing.”

Contact reporter Reid Glenn at rglenn@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on St. Cloud Times: Five-decade Becker founding football coach Dwight Lundeen gets 400th win