Simpson, O J

Simpson, O(renthal) J(ames)

(born July 9, 1947, San Francisco, Calif., U.S.) U.S. football player. At the University of Southern California as a running back (1965–68), he set rushing records, was named All-American, and won the Heisman Trophy (1968). He joined the Buffalo Bills in 1969, with whom he continued to set records, and he became a great box-office draw. Knee injuries led to his being traded in 1978 to the San Francisco 49ers; he retired after the 1979 season. Handsome and genial, he became a popular film and television actor. In 1994 he was charged with the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. The resulting trial and acquittal generated unprecedented media coverage and public debate. A separate civil trial in 1997 found Simpson guilty in a wrongful-death suit. He later collaborated on If I Did It, a hypothetical confession to the murders. Public outrage prevented its initial publication in 2006, but a bankruptcy court subsequently awarded the book's rights to the Goldman family, who released the work in 2007.