Former Packers linebacker George Koonce will join Marquette University's athletic department as a senior associate athletic director / athletics major gifts.

Koonce, who started eight years in Green Bay, will be involved in fundraising, community relations and student welfare. He had been working for the Packers player development department, where he oversaw programs designed to meet the needs of players and their families.

"We are extremely delighted to have George Koonce joining our team," interim athletic director Steve Cottingham said in a statement. "He is a terrific addition to a very talented group and we look forward to doing great things together."

"I feel both humbled and exalted in being afforded the opportunity to serve this great university. Of course with opportunity come responsibility and accountability. I am excited about the prospect, committed to the task and equal to the challenge of making an operation with no apparent deficiency even better," said Koonce.

Following his retirement as a player, Koonce spent two years in private business before returning to his alma mater, East Carolina, in pursuit of his master's degree in sports management. He also spent most of two academic years (2004-‘06) as East Carolina's special assistant to the athletic director, a role in which he was in charge of program development. Possessor of a bachelor's degree in liberal arts, he earned his master's in sports management from East Carolina in the fall of 2006. He is currently pursuing his interdisciplinary Ph.D. in sports administration at Marquette.