From 20 Players To Four Titles, Lundeen’s Legacy At Becker
Longtime football coach Dwight Lundeen is embarking on his final season at Becker High School in 2026. He's had an interesting ride.
Early Days
Dwight was born in Bemidji, Minnesota in 1947. His father was pastoring a church in Blackduck. He was only there for a couple years before the family left to do missionary work throughout the world. Dwight recalls being in the Belgium Congo in Africa and Quebec, Canada. He says he and his family traveled a great deal before he went to college. Dwight has 2 brothers and a sister.
Lots of Travel
Dwight went to 4 different high schools before graduating from Cokato High School in Minnesota in 1965. He says both of his parents are originally from the Dassel and Cokato area. Dwight says sports was always his contact wherever he was. He recalls playing a lot of soccer or games of tag in Africa. While in high school Dwight played football, basketball, baseball and was on the track team.
St. Cloud State
After high school, Dwight chose to attend St. Cloud State University. Dwight's brother was already going to St. Cloud State when he started. He intended to be a teacher and coach, so he majored in education. Dwight participated on the track and field team his sophomore, junior and senior years where his main event was throwing the javelin. He had experience throwing spears in Africa and threw javelin while in high school in Canada. Lundeen lettered 3 years at SCSU and was a NSC champion one year. He set a javelin record at St. Cloud State as well, which has since been broken. Dwight graduated from SCSU in 1969 with a teaching degree, a minor in health and a minor in geography.
Meeting His Wife
While at St. Cloud State he met his wife, Pam. She was a year younger so when Dwight was looking for teaching jobs, he wanted to find something close to St. Cloud while she did her student teaching. Becker had an opening for a teacher so he applied. He recalled he was hired in just minutes. Becker did not have football at the time but wanted to start a football program. The population of Becker at the time was 365 people.
Football Coaching
Dwight was offered the position of football coach at the age of 22 in Becker. He took the job and started building the program. Dwight was the head coach, offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator. He recalls ordering the goal posts, and equipment. 1970 was the first season playing football at Becker and Dwight had a roster of 20 kids of 3 of them being seniors.
NSP Coming In
Northern States Power (NSP) came into Becker with the coal power plant just a couple of years into Lundeen's time in Becker. He says they went from one of the poorest school districts in the state to one of the richest. Lundeen was able to upgrade facilities and equipment and the town of Becker began to grow.
Success at Becker
Dwight has coached football at Becker for 57 seasons. Under his guidance Becker has played in 18 state football tournaments, participated in 9 state championship games with 4 state titles. Dwight won state championships in 2005, 2014, 2015 and 2024. Dwight announced that the 2026 season will be his last. He says it was important to build a winning culture and believes his players look forward to football practice and games with the expectation that they will have success.
If you'd like to listen to my 4-part conversation with Dwight Lundeen, click below.