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Northwestern beat Pitt in the Pinstripe Bowl on Saturday, and, wow, did Wildcats running back Justin Jackson have a day.
Jackson toted the rock 32 times. He gained 224 yards and scored three of NU’s four touchdowns. That yardage total was a career high by a long shot.
The Pinstripe Bowl is played at Yankee Stadium — the new, but still hallowed, ground of Major League Baseball’s most famous franchise: the New York Yankees. Someone asked Jackson after the game about the thrill of playing in the venue. He mentioned a point that’s impossible to argue with in any way:
Justin Jackson: "People were saying: 'Derek Jeter has peed in this urinal." (NU was in the Yankees' locker room.)
— Teddy Greenstein (@TeddyGreenstein) December 28, 2016
This is almost certainly true. Indeed, in the Yankees’ conversion of the stadium from a baseball field to a football field, the football teams use the MLB locker rooms, with extra lockers brought in. The bathrooms are probably the same, too, and Jeets spent a generation playing in the Bronx, including several years at the new Yankee Stadium.
It’s the second time the Pinstripe Bowl’s hero has drawn strength from Jeter’s facilities.
Sam Ficken, who used Derek Jeter’s locker in the clubhouse, delivers the #walkoff in overtime. #PSUvsBC pic.twitter.com/Zs3JbjiA4d
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) December 28, 2014
“Obviously the locker rooms, right?” said Doug Behar, the Yankees’ stadium operations vice president. “Our baseball locker rooms are generally for 25 baseball players and then some September call-ups, but we convert that to 55 or more football players, so we bring in some extra lockers and things like that, and it’s kind of neat to see the space get turned over.”
Peeing where Derek Jeter has once peed? That’s kind of neat, too, I guess.