Former NFL star OJ Simpson is being remembered for the way his trial divided and changed America. Video / NZ Herald / Getty
He was a football star, actor, commercial pitchman, and a defendant in a gruesome double murder whose trial gripped the nation.
OJ Simpson, who died Wednesday at 76, lived a life that made him one of the most famous people in America, as well as, at various times, themost celebrated and most reviled.
A Heisman Trophy winner when he played football at the University of Southern California, he reached superstar status as a running back with the Buffalo Bills. As a commercial pitchman and a Hollywood actor, he became a household name across much of America.
But fame turned to infamy when he was charged in the 1994 double murder of his former wife and her friend. He was acquitted after a trial that riveted the nation.
Here is a look at a man who never seemed to stop making news, for good and ill.
Simpson was runningback for University of Southern California. Photo / AP
Simpson, who was born in San Francisco in 1947, first came to the attention of many Americans as a football star at the University of Southern California. In his two years playing for the Trojans, he was the game’s best running back, and tallied 33 touchdowns.
As a junior in 1967, he was the runner-up for the Heisman Trophy as the college game’s best player, then won the award in 1968, his second and final year at USC.
1973: Professional stardom
Simpson played the final two seasons of his career with the San Francisco 49ers. Photo / AP
Simpson was drafted first overall by the Buffalo Bills in 1969, and by his fourth season he was a superstar. In 1973, he ran for 2,003 yards, which stood as a record for more than a decade, and won the NFL’s Most Valuable Player Award; he was in the Top 5 in MVP voting three other times as well.
He became known as the Juice, and his talent and likability propelled him to even greater notoriety. His on-field accomplishments and fame were all the more impressive given that he seldom played for good teams; his only playoff game, a loss, came in 1974.
He retired in 1979 after playing his final two seasons for the San Francisco 49ers.
1975: Pitchman
Even those who knew little about football got to know the Juice as he began appearing in television advertisements, notably a series of ads for Hertz starting in 1975, in which he dashed through airports on his way to get his rental car. “Nobody has more of what it takes to rent you a Fairmont, Mustang, LTD or other fine car faster,” he said in one ad.
He also tried his hand at announcing, including a stretch from 1983-85 on Monday Night Football.
1988: Hollywood calls
Simpson with Leslie Nielsen and George Kennedy in The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (1991).
Simpson began appearing in television and movie roles even as his football career continued, including some big budget projects like The Towering Inferno in 1974, in which he played the building’s chief of security, and the blockbuster miniseries Roots in 1977.
His biggest success, though, came in the three Naked Gun films, in which he played Detective Nordberg. In a running series of gags, Nordberg was continuously injured, often in scenes played for broad laughs. In one particularly memorable scene, at the end of the first film, Nordberg is seen flying down stadium steps in a wheelchair before being catapulted off a ledge and flipping into the air.
June 12, 1994: Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman are murdered
The most famous low-speed chase in history. Photo / AP
Simpson’s ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and a friend, Ron Goldman, were stabbed to death at her home in Los Angeles on June 12, 1994.
O.J Simpson was questioned and charged with murder. But he did not turn himself in initially. Instead, five days after the killings, he led the police on a bizarre, hourslong low-speed chase in a white 1993 Ford Bronco driven by his friend and former teammate, Al Cowlings. The chase was shown live on nearly every television network, even preempting the NBA Finals.
Simpson during his trial in 1995, when he was asked to try on a pair of golf gloves, one of which was found at the scene of his former wife’s murder. Photo / AP
Simpson’s trial lasted for nine months and gripped the nation for all that time. Multiple television networks broadcast the trial every day, and minor figures, like Kato Kaelin, who was staying in Simpson’s guesthouse at the time of the killings, became celebrities.
In one of the most riveting moments, Simpson was asked to try on bloody gloves found at the crime scene. Simpson claimed the gloves were too tight; his lawyer Johnnie Cochran alluded to this in his closing argument, saying, “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.”
The verdict, despite significant DNA and other evidence, was not guilty on both counts. The result divided Americans: A majority felt it was a miscarriage of justice and continued to assume that Simpson was guilty, while some, including many Black Americans, believed the verdict to be justified.
1997: Civil judgment
Simpson leaving court after testifying in his wrongful death civil trial in November 1996. Photo / AP
After the acquittal, the parents of Nicole Simpson and Goldman filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against OJ Simpson. The jury found Simpson liable and ordered him to pay more than US$30 million ($50 million).
But Simpson said that his no longer having acting and endorsement work meant he was broke. The families ultimately received only a small fraction of the judgment.
2008: Theft charges and prison
Simpson was convicted of armed robbery and kidnapping. Photo / AP
Simpson and several other men entered a hotel room in Las Vegas in 2007; Simpson claimed they were seeking sports memorabilia that had been stolen from him. A gun was brandished.
Simpson was arrested and in 2008 and was found guilty of armed robbery and kidnapping. He was released on parole in 2017 after serving nine years of a 33-year sentence.
2017: Release and later life
Simpson among Bills fans at an N.F.L. game in 2021. Photo / AP
Upon his release from prison in 2017, Simpson settled in Florida and led what was, for him, a relatively low-key life. He played a lot of golf and posted videos regularly on Twitter, generally opening with “It’s me, yours truly,” offering thoughts on professional sports and frequently urging his 800,000 followers to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.
In his final post, on February 11, Simpson, as usual looking relaxed, spoke optimistically about his health and incorrectly predicted that the 49ers would win the Super Bowl.
