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| Dan Donovan was an All-NCC center for the Mavericks in 1989 |
A 1985 graduate of Burnsville (Minn.) High School and a First Team All-North Central Conference selection for the Mavericks in 1989, Donovan went on after college graduation to get his master’s degree from Georgia Tech while serving as a graduate assistant coach for the Georgia Tech football team. After graduating from Georgia Tech, Donovan worked on the event side of sports. He ran sports technology for the 1996 Summer Olympic local committee in Atlanta. Dan continued to work Olympic games being the Head of Sport Competition in the Sydney 2000 Olympics. Then in Athletes 2004 and Beijing 2006 he was the Consultant for Venue and Games readiness.
Now Donovan is the founder and managing partner for Stratoscope security and crowd management.
MavBlog: Talk about your playing days here at Minnesota State, what do you remember the most?
Dan Donovan (DD): I enjoyed all five years I was with the Mavericks! The 1987 North Central Conference championship and NCAA playoff year was a special team to be a part of. Beating North Dakota State in Fargo that season was a real highlight! I happened to have had mono leading up to that game and It was my first game back, so it was a huge win that led us to believe we could be NCC Champions!
MavBlog: How would you describe winning the NCC and being the first Minnesota State football team to make the NCAA tournament?
DD: The experience is hard to describe given the growth of the program and how quickly the pieces came together. Alot of the credit goes to those who laid the foundation before our ’87 team. I came in with the ’85 class and we had great upper-class leadership. We lost our starting QB, Greg Von der Lippe, in the middle of the year and fortunately Mike McDevitt did a great job stepping for Greg.
MavBlog: Do you still keep in touch with any of your former teammates?
DD: We have a group that stays connected (Darryl Wills, Von der Lippe, Chad Gossard, Ken Otto, Dain Jeppson, Ron Dorf and Drew Ekstrom) communicate regularly. We each have others that we are connected to that keeps us all together.
MavBlog: How much pride do you take in the success of the Minnesota State football team now?
DD: I follow as much as possible. I live in Palm Beach, Fla., now so I am not as connected as I could be, but our group keeps us all informed. I am closely watching the Mavericks in the Frozen Four this week given the NCAA is a major client of my company.
MavBlog: Talk about how head coach Dan Runkle had an impact on your life?
DD: Coach Runkle led the effort building the foundation to get to the ’87 Championship. Coach Krohn, Schlichte, Roach and others were great mentors. As a center I was closest to Coach Krohn, he did a great job balancing the personalities!
MavBlog: Tell us about your family.
DD: I have two great kids, Sydni (22) and Chance (21) who were born in Sydney, Australia while I was in charge of the sports department for the Sydney Olympics. Sydni plays college basketball and Chance works for a division of my company.
MavBlog: What are you doing now and how did you get to do that?
DD: I own and run two companies, Stratoscope and Ingressotek, in the sport & entertainment industry. Our typical clients are teams, leagues, stadiums and major events. I began in the event industry, after leaving Georgia Tech as a grad assistant in 1994, starting with the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. I have been fortunate to work with 7 Olympic Games, 13 Super Bowls, 4 NBA All-Star weekends, numerous engagements with the NCAA and many stadiums and arenas over the past 20+ years.
My Stratoscope team is currently working with the NCAA on the delivery of all the 2021 Championships. We have a full time Operations Center in NCAA HQ in Indianapolis staffed by our team and staff at each round of every event operationalizing the Resturn to Championships Protocols we wrote in 2020. My leads at the Di Hockey Regionals were very busy dealing with issues with the Notre Dame and Michigan hockey teams and their COVID results onsite. With the completion and Men’s and Women’s Final Fours we have completed over 50 events in the past 6 weeks.
MavBlog: What is it like working during the Super Bowl?
DD: Super Bowls are a unique experience! Our engagement started after they had multiple challenges with the game in Houston, streaker, ingress challenges and a halftime wardrobe malfunction that included Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson. We were hired as the “what if” operational readiness team and helped the NFL develop contingencies and more robust NFL Control centralized operations on game day. Our first Super Bowl in Jacksonville, the service level of the stadium basically flooded during pre-game, just a few operational challenges! Was involved in the lights going out in New Orleans, train problems in NY/NJ and a variety of issues along the way. It’s a great event to be a part of working alongside a large team of experts.
MavBlog: What is it like working the Olympics? And what is the most memorable one?
DD: International events are completely different beast. From language challenges to various funding models the objectives for each organizing committee vary. Bringing 28 Olympic sports together during a two-week event in one city is a significant challenge. My most memorable was the 2000 Sydney Olympics! I was essentially the Athletic Director responsible for the delivery of all 28 sports. I had the opportunity to travel the world attending events and International Federation meetings while leading a team for 400 staff and 8,000 volunteers dedicated to providing the best events we could for the athletes. All of the politics aside that is what we the Olympics are there for. I also had the opportunity to be an Olympic Torch runner that year which is one of the most memorable experiences from the Games.
MavBlog: Do you still come back for some Football games or any Mavericks athletics?
DD: The last game I was able to attend was the national championship game in McKinney, Tex. We had a great group of alumni at that game. Prior to that it was the reunion of the 1987 team in 2017. We had a great turnout there and it was fantastic to catch up with a number of our former teammates.
Contributed by Tanner Johnson, Minnesota Athletic Communications intern
