After 17 seasons of Survivor, one of the strongest competitors to ever don a tribal buff emerged in Gabon, Africa when 57 year old high school physics teacher, Bob Crowley, came out from underneath the radar to claim the title of sole survivor and take home the million dollar prize in Survivor Gabon. Not since Survivor Outback, when Colby Donaldson dominated almost every immunity challenge, have Survivor fans seen such a fierce and resourceful player than Bob Crowley. After keeping a low profile for most of the season, Bob seized control of the game when he created two fake, and highly believable, immunity idols to turn the tables on his tribe mates before going on to win five consecutive challenges to shift the balance of power in his favor. After 17 seasons, Bob's accomplishments in Gabon rank among the most memorable moments in the show's history.

The morning after the live finale of Survivor Gabon, in which the final three of Bob, Sugar and Susie finally learned who the million dollar survivor would be, we caught up with the state of Maine's most famous physics teacher for an exclusive chat shortly after Bob Crowley touched down in New York City after catching the red-eye flight from L.A. Since we were glued to our Survivor seats for the entire season of Gabon, we couldn't wait to find out Bob's secret to success.

THE DEADBOLT: Hi, Bob. Congratulations.

BOB CROWLEY: Thank you very much.

THE DEADBOLT: Are you surprised that no one flushed out Sugar’s immunity idol during the entire game?

BOB: I was totally flabbergasted and got to looking and thinking, ‘Have they forgotten?’ While I was there, I wasn’t, because Crystal and Kenny had told me that she had played the idol. That’s why when I went to Exile Island I looked for twelve hours one day and four hours the previous day for it. So until I watched it on TV I didn’t realize she had it. Till this day I don’t understand whether they forgot she had it or what the deal was. Kenny’s strategy of flushing, which is why Corinne got voted out, that wasn’t to vote her out so much as it was to flush the idol out.

THE DEADBOLT: Yeah, that didn’t make sense to me either.

BOB: A lot of the things the other tribe did didn’t make sense. However, it got Crystal and Kenny, the two probably least athletic people in the game, very close to the final three.

THE DEADBOLT: When you look back now, are you surprised the fake idols worked so well?

BOB: You should’ve seen them, they looked pretty cool. Actually I [thought], "Oh, gosh, if I gloat I’m going to fall down the stairs on the way here." But the idol was kind of nice. It came out much better than I thought I’d be able to do. Then the second idol was much easier because - I don’t know whether you guys figured out what happened, but the individual immunity necklace had five medallions on it that matched the ones the idol had that we threw in the ocean. I just wrenched that thing off and added a few other trinkets that I stole from the torches. They can’t sue me or arrest me for stealing stuff from the torches. So I stole the stuff off of the torches and Corinne gave me the beads off of her bottle that she purchased at the auction.

THE DEADBOLT: You’re not the first to use a fake idol, but do you think that you set a precedent where nobody will believe in the idols?

BOB: I hope so. It’s nice to freak out future survivors. It was slightly better than just a stick.

THE DEADBOLT: How difficult was it for to know that you had to set Randy up? Did you think twice about doing it?

BOB: Yes, but I didn’t feel good about it. And, geez, in hindsight - God, I’d hate to give up the million bucks, but in hindsight had I known they were going to be as mean to him when he got voted out - I just, I didn’t like that. It went over the top. But what the bottom was, it was clear to me that they had sort of figured that I was a bigger threat than Randy was and Randy was disposable at any time and that I might not be. It was real clear to me that it was Randy or me. I just thought it made more sense to save myself for one more week and that’s all it did. It saved me for one week and then I was able to take it one week at a time from there.

THE DEADBOLT: Are you guys on speaking terms now or is he still mad at you?

BOB: Randy? Actually, Kenny and I - he’s doing much better - but boy, Kenny was the one that was really angry with me. It doesn’t make any sense, but I think it’s more of an immaturity on Kenny’s part. He was so angry that he didn’t have any control and that he didn’t fool me.

THE DEADBOLT: Kenny’s explanation that you owed him didn’t make sense to me either. How did you view that?

BOB: I viewed that as sort of an immature [issue]. He just thought of himself as such a strategist. I think he thought it was like playing video games and I guess he thought I wasn’t paying attention. So I think he realizes now he got arrogant. He said to Sugar, ‘I’m going to make Bob look like the stupidest survivor ever.’ And I think that aggravated Sugar and I think that’s one of the reasons she told me.

Although Randy and I, on the other hand, I like Randy and he doesn’t like me. So that’s great, opposites attract. Randy doesn’t like anybody. Randy said to me a couple of weeks ago, ‘No hard feelings.’ He understood it was a game. He was a little bit upset at the time and he also appreciated the fact that I was more than upset with Sugar and Crystal. I mean, I was not a happy camper when I came back to the camp and I don’t think what they showed on TV entirely showed how angry I was.

THE DEADBOLT: How much do you think your ability to relate to high school kids played a factor in relating to the younger tribe members?

BOB: I think it was real helpful. The thing is, I deal with high school kids all of the time. See, essentially, I only deal with seniors and at our high school physics is a senior subject. An eighteen year old senior or a seventeen year old senior is not that far away from the younger crowd. And the other thing is that my daughter and my two sons are twenty five and twenty seven, which is right in there with that whole crowd. And we have a lot of young people at the house and I deal with them a lot, and I think that really helped me in relating to them and befriending them and understanding them.

THE DEADBOLT: At what point did you feel you had a real shot at winning the whole thing?

BOB: This question has been asked quite a bit today and I don’t want to sound like I’m dodging the question, but I was absolutely certain I was going to take the game when he [Jeff] turned that last vote over. There was no point in the game that I thought I had won. A couple of times people had said something to that effect and I just felt a curse to even think that. In the game of Survivor nothing is certain until Jeff turns over the last vote at the last game. He’s sort of like the fat lady that sings.

THE DEADBOLT: What was the hardest aspect of the game when you were back at camp with the others?

BOB: Without a doubt the hardest aspect of the game was the mental game, the psychological game. It is an incredible game of chess only they were all individual thinking - Trying to figure out the mental part of the game is without a doubt the most stressful and the most difficult.

THE DEADBOLT: So a little bit of paranoia sets in for everybody?

BOB: The paranoia sets in. I don’t know why. See, I didn’t get paranoid. I think, probably when they voted Marcus out, I think that’s when I had the line, ‘Yo, I’m history,' even though I teach science. I just sort of accepted my fate when it came down, as opposed to worrying about it. I think that probably allowed me to have a clearer mind when it came to doing challenges and making decisions.

THE DEADBOLT: When you got the message from your wife, she said that she hoped you were having fun out there because it’s what you like to do. How much were you in your element out there?

BOB: I was one hundred percent. When it came to the environment, the survival aspects, that’s my ballgame. I got that, hands down. But when it comes to dealing with people and being able to - You know, Kenny had me hook, line, and sinker. I had no idea what a strategist he was. In dealing with the people, that is not my game. Although, apparently it’s becoming one.