Phil Lundin is a Minnesotan, through and through.
Lundin’s coaching career was entrenched in the Land of 10,000 Lakes, where he led athletes and teams to numerous titles without traveling far between coaching positions. From Burnsville High School to the University of Minnesota and finally to St. Olaf College, Lundin’s coaching journey covered a distance of no more than 90 miles. Even his schooling, which included earning a master’s in physical education and a Ph.D. in biomechanics from the University of Minnesota, kept him close to his Minnesotan roots.
Throughout a remarkable 46-year, Hall-of-Fame coaching career, Lundin’s athletes amassed more than 150 individual event titles, including eight individual crowns at the NCAA Division III Track & Field Championships. Notably, St. Olaf standouts Paul Escher and Jake Campbell made history by becoming the first male teammates to win 1500-meter titles in consecutive years at the NCAA DIII Outdoor Championships (Escher in 2015; Campbell in 2016).
The pinnacle of Lundin’s career came in 2013 when he led St. Olaf to victory at the NCAA DIII Cross Country Championships. With four Oles earning All-America honors, including a crucial role played by then-freshman Campbell, they secured a narrow two-point victory over North Central (Ill.), matching the closest finish in meet history. It was a remarkable rise for St. Olaf, as it finished no better than 14th in the previous five seasons under Lundin’s direction.
St. Olaf rode the momentum of that historic win into five more top-5 finishes at the NCAA Championships in the subsequent three years. Three of those top-5 finishes came during the 2014-15 academic year – second in cross country, fourth indoors and fifth outdoors – which led the Oles to place third in the USTFCCCA NCAA DIII Program of the Year Final Standings.
Before his time at St. Olaf, Lundin worked alongside Hall-of-Fame coaches Roy Griak and Gary Wilson at the University of Minnesota. During his tenure as the head coach of the men’s track & field program, the Golden Gophers earned five top-10 finishes at the NCAA Championships and secured four Big Ten titles. Lundin’s outstanding coaching performance earned him the United States Track Coaches Association Division I Coach of the Year award in 2003.