Dean’s sports career started in Blooming Prairie, Minnesota where he lettered in both basketball and baseball at Blooming Prairie High School. Dean graduated from Blooming Prairie High School in 1957 after having been a captain on his basketball team in 1956-57. Dean was honored this past January as the first male athlete to be inducted into the newly established Blooming Prairie High School Hall of Fame.
Upon graduating from high school Dean continued his athletic prowess at Bethany Lutheran College. Dean lettered in both basketball and baseball for Bethany. He was named the captain of the 1958-1959 basketball team that placed second at the national tournament in Hutchinson, Kansas. While at Bethany Lutheran Dean led the basketball team in assists and in 1959 was named the Homecoming King.
Dean’s two years at Bethany were followed by two more at then Mankato State University where he played basketball on a MSU team that won conference titles in both 1959 – 60, and again in 1960 – 61. He graduated from MSU with a degree in secondary education.
In the intervening years Dean has put that degree to good use having taught Industrial Technology from 1963 to 1998 at Rapidan High School, St. Clair High School, Lincoln Junior High School, and Mankato West High School. During the same period Dean’s love of students and sports continued in his role as coach for varsity basketball, track, and golf. He coached varsity golf at Mankato West from 1973 until his recent retirement from coaching in 2008. Dean’s success as an athlete was mirrored in his coaching as he was named Section Coach ten times, Big Nine Conference Coach of the Year six times, and Minnesota State Coach of the Year twice. Dean’s teams won five Big Nine Conference championships and he took ten teams and twenty-six individuals to state competitions. Two teams and one individual won the state titles under his tutelage.
Dean has served in the Mankato community for many years. He started the first junior high traveling basketball team in Mankato in 1977, has served on his church council, taught Sunday school, developed a woodworking program for Central High School and is involved with Habitat for Humanity.
