Northwestern defeated Mississippi State in the Gator Bowl on Tuesday to win its first bowl game since 1949. For those of you who struggle with math, that’s a 64-year drought. The Wildcats had lost nine straight bowl appearances prior to the 34-20 victory, which was tied with Notre Dame for the longest bowl losing streak.
One might say Northwestern got the monkey of its back with the win, which is why the team decided to celebrate by destroying a stuffed monkey after the game. The photo you see above was tweeted by the Northwestern athletics twitter account, which described the carnage as “the remains of the bowl monkey.” Head coach Pat Fitzgerald made mention of the monkey to begin his postgame press conference.
The stuffed monkey supposedly spent the last year in storage where no one had to look at it, but all of the players and coaches were eager to break it out after the win. Now, Fitzgerald and company will look to keep the success rolling rather than have to destroy a monkey the next time they win a bowl game.
