After the Bengals lifted the ultimate burden weighing on the shoulders of the organization's fanbase – a playoff-win drought older than Joe Burrow himself – the city of Cincinnati erupted.
Bars were full. Streets painted in orange and black. And a vibrant buzz reminiscent only of prior postseason runs ensued.
Fans took to social media to encapsulate the moment and reflect on the one triumph that succeeded many defeats over the past 31 years. And in every virtual corner of Bengals fandom, one familiar image resurfaced online to remind fans that there would be more to come from their favorite team. That there would be a "next" game.
Former Enquirer editorial cartoonist Jim Borgman's "Next" cartoon, which became a symbol of the Bengals' 1988-1989 run to the Super Bowl, is that image, and it has returned online as the current team seeks another crack at championship glory.
After the Bengals defeated the Raiders 26-19 in the wild card round of the playoffs on Jan. 16, scores of fans shared Borgman's cartoon on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
"Jim Borgman drew this in the fall of '88. I had it on a sweatshirt that I wore during the '89 playoffs and Super Bowl," wrote Facebook user Barb Nolan Hogan. "It was my first year living in Cincinnati, and first cheering for the Bengals."
"I've always loved this," wrote user Kris Payler Staverman.
'Bring on the next opponent'
The cartoon, which features a battle-ready Bengal tiger nestled near midfield of a football stadium, was first published in The Enquirer on Oct. 6, 1988, the Thursday before a regular-season matchup against the New York Jets.
More:Jim Borgman shares his story of winning the Pulitzer Prize
More:Kevin Necessary and Jim Borgman talk Cincinnati, cartoons and careers.
Borgman, a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist who for 32 years captured the city and all of its intricacies through many memorable editorial drawings, recalled the image catching fire after it was first published. But the inspiration for the image, he said, was quite simple. The caption was even simpler.
"Where do ideas come from? Who knows," said Borgman, who retired in 2008 and currently lives in Boulder, Colorado. "I just remember the thought of 'Bring it on. Bring on the next opponent.' "
"There wasn't Google Imaging then, so I guess I went to the library probably and asked them for photos of tigers," he added while laughing. "That's the way we did it then."
The drawing took off. And with the Bengals success, "Next" became a part of the team's playoff run. Not long after the cartoon was published, a T-shirt featuring the drawing was created with the help of a radio station and T-shirt company, Borgman said. The money that was raised was given to a homeless shelter, and fans sported the shirt all the way up until the Super Bowl.
The Enquirer then reintroduced a shirt with Borgman's famous drawing screened on the front in 2006, the year Bengals returned to the postseason for the first time since 1991. An ad published in The Enquirer on Jan. 5, 2006, gave fans a chance to score one of the shirts with the purchase of an EZ Pay subscription.
To this day, Borgman receives messages about the famous cartoon he drew 33 years ago.
"I'm astonished, people will still send me photos of them wearing that shirt," he said.
Bigger than sports
Because of his talent in capturing the moment through drawings, The Enquirer sent Borgman to Miami in 1989 for a week ahead of the Super Bowl. Borgman captured the build-up to the game through a series of drawings that told stories of a Bengal invasion of the city, press conferences, and merchandise sales. But one incident stuck out in particular. The 1989 Miami riot followed civil rights protests. Hundreds of people were arrested after rioters set fires to stores in response to a police officer shooting and killing one unarmed Black man on a motorcycle, which crashed and also killed his passenger.
There covering the pre-game festivities, Borgman penned a cartoon with the caption "we thought we were here to do a football story, but suddenly talk of 'Defense' has taken a disturbing twist," after the riot began.
Borgman, who won the Pulitzer two years later, said his trip to the 1989 Super Bowl followed a long string of major events he was sent to cover. Sending cartoonists to capture events was something more common back in the day, he said.
"It started by going to the political conventions," Borgman said. "The Republican and Democratic conventions. And I think it was just being there during the week and sending back drawings. It was an attempt to capture the excitement and all the behind-the-scenes kind of stuff."
Adding to the conversation
Borgman has been bombarded with texts about his "Next" cartoon as the Bengals continue their playoff run. He's amazed that it resurfaced all these years later.
"It strikes me as the 30-year cicada," he said. "It goes underground for all those years of dormancy and then emerges again. I'm shocked that people still think of that image. But anything that adds to the excitement is part of the fun."
"It's fun to think that somehow I'm still a part of the conversation," he added.
Borgman said he has enjoyed being on the sidelines watching current Enquirer cartoonist Kevin Necessary capture the playoff run.
"I think Kevin does a fabulous job," he said. "I do see his stuff on Instagram, and I'm so pleased that he has taken that seat. He is very, very talented and I'm pulling for him all the way."
But there is a part of him that feels a little itch whenever something major happens in the city he illustrated for three decades. Such as a Bengal takeover.
"That part I could miss," he said about the Bengals' playoff run. "I don't really miss the political commentary anymore. The world is so polarized now. But, on a week like this when I know the whole city is buzzing about the Bengals, that'd be fun to be there. If I still had a little lightning in my brush, I'd enjoy adding to that conversation."
