In a quite unlikely happening, a deceased person “placed” an “irresponsibly large wager” on an American football game.
An Irresponsibly Large Wager in Memory of a Deceased Veteran
The person in question is Milton Munson, who passed away at 73. Munson, a former war veteran who served in the Air Force, was a huge fan of the Nebraska Cornhuskers. The veteran’s sons wanted to do something that would have made their father happy and published an obituary in a local newspaper. It addressed readers and asked them to place “an irresponsibly large wager” on the Nebraska Cornhuskers’ game against the Iowa Hawkeyes.
Two local radio hosts – Josh Peterson and Jack Mitchell, working for KOZN-AM and KLIN-AM, respectively – caught wind of the gesture the Munson sons did in memory of their father. Inspired by the story, Peterson and Mitchell decided to really make things happen and launched a crowdfunding project on GoFundMe with a $10,000 goal.
“Josh and I sort of hatched this Monday afternoon as this little thing. We thought we should just centralize it all and make one large bet on his behalf and remember Milt,” Mitchell revealed in an interview with the Lincoln Journal Star.
The project plans to use the money to both fund the “irresponsibly large wager” and donate to the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Nebraska charity – a cause that the Munson family chose themselves. Furthermore, if the bet ends up winning, the proceeds will also go to the cause. DraftKings currently offers odds of -115 for the Huskers to win the game, meaning that if the bet ends up winning, it will rake in almost double its initial value.
At the time of this writing, $9,505 of the total goal has been collected with the help of 146 people.
Will Munson’s Spirit Guide the Cornhuskers to Victory?
The game between the Nebraska Cornhuskers and the Iowa Hawkeyes is yet to take place. It is scheduled for this Friday and will bring the two teams to the field in a match that will decide the fate of Munson’s postmortem bet.
Interestingly enough, the Cornhuskers seem to be the underdogs in this scenario. The team has had a less-than-thrilling season and recently lost a game against the Wisconsin Badgers. They are currently second to last in the Big Ten West.
Munson was well-aware of the team’s losing streak, according to the obituary, placed by his sons:
“The grim reality of the Nebraska Cornhuskers finishing yet another season with a losing record proved to be too much to bear for Milton Andrew Munson, who decided he’d seen enough of this world during the team’s recent bye week. The Huskers may not have sent him into the afterlife with a victory but at least they didn’t lose,” the light-hearted obituary reads.
Still, one of Munson’s sons hopes that the team will score a victory with the help of his father’s spirit.
“If the ghost of my old man can’t will the Huskers to victory on Friday, then they truly are a lost cause,” the son said in a radio interview.
