The Northwestern Wildcats are back home in Evanston as bowl champions for the first time in decades.

The university’s band played as the team walked off their bus with the Gator Bowl Championship.

The Wildcats defeated Mississippi State on New Year’s Day 34-20.

That snapped college football’s longest postseason losing streak, since the Wildcats had not won a bowl game since 1949.

Head Coach Pat Fitzgerald had his own milestone.

He hadn’t won a bowl game in his previous five attempts.