Former Maverick Chad Lundeen

Hello MavBlog & Vikings at Minnesota State readers.

Today I had the opportunity to meet with Minnesota State alumni and former Maverick men’s hockey forward, Chad Lundeen, who now works for the Vikings as Director of Operations and Facilities. Chad attended Minnesota State from 1994-1998 as an undergraduate, majoring in Marketing and Management, and went on to be a graduate assistant while he completed the graduate program here for Sport Management.  

Chad Lundeen Director of Operations and Facilities

Chad was born and raised in Little Falls, Minn., where he grew up as a life-long Vikings fan. His first love was hockey, but also grew up playing football in grade school and high school. He said his family were huge, huge Vikings fans so he is very fortunate to have landed himself, you could say, his dream job. Although during college, he had not known where he wanted to end up.

As a walk-on for the hockey team, Chad was so focused on trying to make the team that he didn’t think much about what career path to pursue. “I just worked my buns off trying to get on the ice and get some playing time. I wasn’t focused on what I was going to do after school.” Chad said he was really fortunate to be a student athlete at MSU.

“Some kids come out of school with a resume with nothing on it. But the networking that I got with being an athlete really helped open a door for me with the athletic department and then the Vikings," said Lundeen, who had four goals and nine assists for 13 points in 55 games in his four years of playing hockey at Minnesota State. "I was pretty lucky. I didn’t think about my career until grad school, when the hockey coach encouraged me to stay on as a graduate assistant in the athletic department and pursue sport management.”

It worked out for Chad, and one of the first things he knew he needed to do was get started on an internship program. So before he even started with graduate school, jr an interview with the Vikings and a couple days later he got a job in which he interned for them doing operations the first two summers he went to grad school. Combine that with two years in which he served as a graduate assistant for Tim Marshall, Minnesota State’s assistant AD for Fiscal Affairs and Operatiosn and the end result is where he is now - Director of Operations and Facilities for a National Football League franchise.

As Director of Operations and Facilities, Chad is in charge of the logistics and all the behind the scene aspects that keep the team running smoothly from day-to-day and also the facilities at Winter Park. He said his job has evolved over the past 17 years, where he started out in community relations and operations, where a big part was the organization and setting up of training camp.

He also assisted with team community relations in which Vikings players involved in the community every Tuesday; and eventually got promoted to director of operations. A few years ago his role expanded when he began overseeing facilities operations at Winter Park.

Every job has challenges and Lundeen’s situation is no different. “Biggest dislikes are the hours and time commitment. Early into my career, I was a workaholic, which is kind of the nature of our job, almost a 24/7 deal. But I took that to the extreme, but it helped me get a step ahead in my career and to be valuable to the organization. Now, as I’ve gotten a little bit older and had the chance to meet somebody, get married and have three young children, it becomes tough to be away from them as much as I am.”

“The best thing about my job is still being involved in a team aspect. We’re all involved in this organization with a common goal of trying to win. We really work together as a team and it’s very fun. My wife will say to me, do you realize you just went four straight months without one day off? I will have to step back and think, Oh, you’re right, I guess I did. That tells me right there that I enjoy what I’m doing. It doesn’t feel like you’re going to work everyday when you have a passion and enjoy what you’re doing.”

Each year, Chad gets to come back to the University and city where he lived his college years. When asked how he likes that aspect of training camp, he replied, “I like coming back to Mankato every year. It allows me the chance to reconnect with the community, the university and people I haven’t seen for a long time. The only downside is it’s often disappointing I don’t get the chance to get out and see those people and do anything socially. I always end up leaving every year wishing I could’ve talked to those 10 people I wanted to see but missed.”