The Miliken University Athletic Hall of Fame has tabbed Georgia Southern University head football coach Jeff Monken as one of six to be inducted as part of its 2013 class on Oct. 4.

A product of the class of ’89, Monken is being recognized for his outstanding career as a football coach.

Monken’s coaching career started as a graduate assistant football coach at the University of Hawaii during the 1989-90 season.  The team would go 9-3 and play in the 1989 Aloha Bowl, the first bowl game in the school’s history.

After earning his master’s degree in higher educational administration at the University of Hawaii in 1991, Monken would find himself at Arizona State University as a graduate assistant wide receivers coach for one year.

He then moved on to the State University of New York at Buffalo, where he was assistant coach for the wide receivers and tight ends, and also served as recruiting coordinator from 1992-94.

Monken would have brief coaching stops at Morton High School in Berwyn, Ill., and at Concordia University in River Forest, Ill., before he became a part of Eagle Nation.

His first stint at GSU lasted from 1997-2001 where he was the slotbacks and punters coach.  With Monken on staff, the Eagles were the national runner-up in 1998 and national champions in 1999 and 2000.  The team would also win the Southern Conference Championship each year from 1997 through 2001.

In 2002, Monken became the slotbacks coach for the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.  In six seasons with the team he helped the Midshipmen win first back-to-back bowl victories in school history in 2004 and 2005.

Monken would follow his coaching mentor, Paul Johnson, to the Georgia Institute of Technology from 2008-2010.  He helped lead the team to an 8-4 record and an appearance in the 2008 Chik-fil-A Bowl. In 2009, they won the conference championship with a 10-4 record and made an Orange Bowl appearance.

Monken’s current stint with GSU as the head football coach began in 2010.  His 31 victories in three seasons rank first in the Southern Conference and second nationally.  He earned Southern Conference Coach of the Year and American Football Coaches Association Regional Coach of the Year in 2011 and was a 2012 Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year finalist.

With Monken at the helm, GSU earned national semifinal appearances in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision playoffs in 2010, 2011 and 2012.

While at Miliken, Monken was a wide receiver on the football team. He also lettered twice in track and was co-captain of the 1989 track team. Monken and his wife, Beth, have three daughters: Isabelle, 10; Amelia, 5; and Evangeline, 2.