Long before he enjoyed nationwide fame, and later infamy, Orenthal James Simpson was born in the city on July 9th, 1947 and grew up in public housing in San Francisco’s Potrero Hill neighborhood in the 50s and 60s.
A one-time juvenile delinquent, Simpson says he was turned around after meeting San Francisco Giants great Willie Mays as a teenager. Simpson first flashed his athletic prowess on the gridiron as a running back at Galileo High School – now Galileo Academy of Science and Technology — before graduating in 1965.
Simpson enrolled at the Community College of San Francisco, where he led the football team to a junior college bowl game and attracted the attention of college coaches. He earned an athletic scholarship to USC, where he led the Trojans to a national championship in 1967 and won the Heisman Trophy the following year.
Simpson was drafted by the Buffalo Bills in 1969, where he set several rushing records. He played there for nine seasons, before being traded to his hometown 49ers for two years before retiring from football and becoming an actor and a beloved corporate pitch man.
“I don’t think he ever forgot his San Francisco roots.”
Longtime Bay Area sports broadcaster Bruce MacGowan interviewed Simpson several times.
“I remember when he came to our radio station, when I was working at KNBR, years ago, he remarked, rather casually, about how he always enjoyed coming back. And he kind of bragged, and he said, ‘Well, just up the street, you know, up Bay Street,’ – and you know, our station was located just off Bay Street – ‘that’s where I went to high school.’”
The publicly affable Simpson’s persona was tarnished forever when he was tried for the 1994 murders of his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and restaurant waiter Ron Goldman. Their bodies were found brutally stabbed outside Nicole Simpson’s Brentwood, Los Angeles home.
He was later acquitted of murder charges in what was described as the “Trial of the Century” in 1995.
Simpson then moved to Florida. After more legal trouble – including a nine-year stint in a Nevada prison for kidnapping, robbery and assault – Simpson moved to Las Vegas.Last year, he was diagnosed with cancer. Simpson’s family announced his death from the disease Wednesday night.
