To have passion and career paths align in the same path is something that may not happen to everyone. For former Cyclone hockey forward Chris Linden, however, one of his two year long projects was just that.

This past Wednesday night in Pittsburgh was the unveiling of a statue in honor of the Pittsburgh Penguins owner and hockey team legend Mario Lemieux.

Lemieux is a Canadian former professional hockey player whose career lasted from 1987 to 2006. He is acknowledged as being one of the best players of all time. Lemieux had to bow out of the league twice due to health related issues including battling lymphoma in 1997. The second time was in 2006.

Lemieux is also well known for staying with one team his entire professional career, winning the Stanley Cup in 1991 and 1992, three Hart Trophies as the NHL’s most valuable player and many other awards. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame after his first retirement despite the three-year waiting period.

“I grew up watching them and Mario play,” Linden said. “How often do you have your passion and your career align?”

Linden informed the Iowa State Daily about the proceedings of events for the unveiling and some the more notable attendees.

“I sat by [professional Canadian hockey player] Sidney Crosby for some of it,” Linden said nonchalantly.

The day started at noon with a couple of speakers then had the unveiling. Lemieux spoke briefly followed by a lunch, a brief photo shot and interviews with the designers and the sculptor Bruce Wolfe, a well known commemorative artist, sculptor and painter.

The story of how Linden ended up being one of the big contributors to building the statue in honor of Lemieux “is quite interesting actually,” Linden said laughing over the phone from his Pittsburgh hotel room the night of the unveiling of the statue.

Originally from Cleveland, Linden came to Iowa State after playing junior hockey in Minnesota.

“Linden was a great team member not only on the ice but also in the classroom,” said Alan Murdoch, ISU hockey coach.

The 2005 Iowa State alumnus continued to be involved in hockey by coaching teams around the country. He currently resides in Oakland, Calif., and helps coach a Bantam team made of 14-year-olds and a squirt team of 9-year-olds.

After graduating with a degree in communications from Iowa State, Linden lived in Pittsburgh and coached hockey while getting another degree in design from Pittsburgh Technical.

“It just so happened that I coached the Penguin’s [chief financial officer’s] son, so [I had] lots of ties to the Penguins before I moved to California.” Linden said.

How Linden became a part of the project was purely by accident, he said.

“I was actually just coaching at a rink in California when Bruce Wolfe, the main sculptor for the Mario statue, … walked in,” Linden said.

Wolfe was there to take some pictures of the players to see their movement and actions since he did not have a background in hockey.

Wolfe walked onto the ice and talked to Linden, found out he was a designer and informed him about the Mario statue. At this time, the project had not been announced to the public. After a brief discussion, Wolfe asked Linden to come by his studio to talk some more.

Immediately Linden called up the CFO of the Penguins.

“I called and asked, ‘So ah, what’s going on this statue?’ ‘What do you mean what’s going on with the statue?’ ‘You know the Mario statue.’ ‘How do you know about that?’ … It was crazy,“ Linden said.

Once Wolfe knew Linden had not only a background in hockey but also a connection to the Pittsburgh Penguins, he was “super thrilled”.

During the process Linden took around 800 photos of the project. Linden produced a book and sent it to the Penguins along with making an icon to represent the project on the front.

“The Penguins liked so much that they put it on some their merchandise.” Linden said.

After this event Murdoch hopes that Linden will come back to Iowa State in the fall to attend the annual Cyclone Hockey Hall of Fame weekend which coincides with Cyclone Family Weekend.