Before last Saturday’s Army-Navy football game – America’s Game – Army coach Jeff Monken discussed what the game means with The Associated Press.

The 1985 Joliet Central graduate and son of Mike Monken, a longtime football coach at Joliet Township high schools, is in his third season as Army’s head coach and spent six years as a Navy assistant.

“Every young man that’s playing in the game and 9,000 other college-aged students dressed in uniform sitting in the stands have all made a pledge of commitment to serve this nation,” Monken told The AP. “Ultimately, they’ll put their lives on the line for all of us who aren’t willing to make that commitment. If people don’t see this as America’s Game, I don’t know that they’re paying close enough attention.”

That was among the reasons Monken was hired to lead the Black Knights’ fortunes. He gets it. He knows how special it is, what it means, to lead the Army football team.

More than anything else, that’s what I recall us discussing during the Christmas holidays in 2013, shortly after he was hired. For no particular reason, I always had been a Navy fan in the big game. After Army hired Monken, however, that changed. Along with so many other local fans, so many associated with the Joliet Township schools, I was thrilled with Saturday’s outcome.

Army lost a 14-point halftime lead to fall behind 17-14, but the resilient Black Knights put together the decisive touchdown drive in the fourth quarter of a 21-17 victory. Before that, Army had lost 14 straight in the storied series. The overall count now is 60-50-7 in Navy’s favor.

“It’s just a great rivalry that’s been a part of the college football landscape for over a century,” said Monken, who played wide receiver at NCAA Division III Millikin University and is a member of the Millikin Hall of Fame. “Each team wants to win, but they’re all in this thing together.”

He gets it.

Still, there was so much talk before the game about how Army has been down for the last couple of decades and had not beaten Navy (9-4) since 2001. That ended Saturday.

“What a feeling,” Monken said during a television interview in the mayhem on the field. “I’m so proud of our guys. I’m so proud for this corps of cadets and for the United States Army. Everybody laying in a foxhole or chasing a bad guy right now, this one is for you.”

In the postgame press conference, Monken answered questions about the end of the skid.

“I think it was a big deal to put that to an end,” he said. “I try not to put pressure on our own team to worry about the past 14 teams. They’re not responsible for those teams, they’re responsible for the 2016 team, and that game was today. This team right here is 1-0 against Navy and will never play in this game together again.

“The seniors decided that it was time for us to get it done. They’ve worked tirelessly – a tough, resilient, hardworking group of guys that believe in each other. No matter what’s come our way, they found a way to claw back and come back the next week and prepare for the next day. What a great example for the young guys coming behind them. I hope this is only just the beginning.”

We all do.

Monken, in fact, had the Black Knights (7-5) trending in a positive direction before they beat Navy. They already had accepted a bid to play in a bowl game in Monken’s third season. They will have a rematch against North Texas in the Heart of Dallas Bowl at 11 a.m. Dec. 27 on ESPN. North Texas won the Oct. 22 regular-season meeting, 35-18.

Monken’s first two Army teams were a combined 6-18. This season, the Black Knights have reaped the benefits of Monken’s triple-option offense, which was so successful during his tenure as head coach at Georgia Southern.

Army is averaging 327.7 rushing yards and 403.8 total yards per game while allowing 123.3 rushing and 281.6 total. The Black Knights beat Temple, Rice, Texas-El Paso, Lafayette, Wake Forest and Morgan State before knocking off a very good Navy team. The losses were to Buffalo, Duke, Air Force, North Texas and Notre Dame.

It is fair to say Army has returned to respectability on the field, and there is no reason to believe the Black Knights can’t continue moving forward under Monken’s leadership.

A victory in America’s Game, and the Joliet area’s only current head coach in major college football has become a national figure.

• Dick Goss can be reached at dgoss@shawmedia.com .