News flash, if you already didn’t know, the iconic O.J Simpson passed away after a yearlong battle with cancer. With the passing of O. J Simpson, it has brought up memories of how great of an athlete he was, a successful businessman and actor, and the infamous event what was dubbed “The trial of the century.”

O.J Simpson came from humble beginnings. His journey began when he was born on July 9^th, 1947 in San Francisco, California. He was given then name Orenthal James (O.J) by an aunt who stated it was the name of a French actor that she liked.

O.J grew up in San Francisco Potrero Hill neighborhood housing projects. As a child, he developed “Ricketts” and had to wear leg braces until he was five years old. During his teenage years O.J joined a street gang called the “Persian Warriors.”

As a teenager growing up in California it was and still is common that many people become affiliated with a street gang. In O. J’s case, being affiliated with the “Persian Warriors,” resulted in him being incarcerated, spending time at the San Francisco Youth Guidance center.   

During this phase in O.J’s life he happened to meet the baseball hall of fame player Willie Mays, who encouraged O.J to avoid trouble, which persuaded him to reform his ways, and to stay in school.

 O.J attended Galileo High School in San Francisco, where he was a standout player on the football team. He earned the title of being an “All City player,” but due to his mediocre grades many college football recruiters were not interested in him.

O.J was never recruited to play for any college by the time he graduated in 1965. Around the same time period, one of his childhood friends returned injured from serving in the Vietnam War. This discouraged O.J from joining the military, and he decided to enroll in the City College of San Francisco.

O.J joined the City College football team playing in the position of running back, and defensive back. During his stint at City College O.J was named Junior College All American team as a running back.

O.J was also an aspiring track star at City College. He ran the 100 meters, and he was a member of the 4X110 yard sprint relay that broke the world record at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) track championship in 1967.

Also, in 1967, O.J was part of the football team in City College’s victory against Long Beach State at the Prune Bowel. After that many colleges were eager to recruit O.J as a transfer student.

O.J enrolled at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles (LA), where he played the position of running back, under head coach John Mckay. Under McKay, O.J managed to lead the nation in rushing and touch downs.

During his senior year, O.J earned the Maxwell Award, the Walter Camp award and the Heisman Trophy.

In 1968, O.J was drafted into the National Football League (NFL) by the Buffalo Bills during the first round pick. At the time O.J was given the highest contract in professional sports history.  

O.J’s professional football career got off to a slow start. For the first three seasons he only averaged around 600 yards per season. The head coach John Rauch assigned O.J to do blocking and receiving, as he didn’t want to build an offense around one running back. Rauch resigned and the Bills brought in Harvey Johnson as the next head coach. Johnson reorganized the offense strategy, but O.J was still ineffective.

Johnson was later fired, and his replacement was Lou Saban. Once Saban became the head coach, he also reorganized the offense, this time around he made O.J the center piece. This resulted in O.J rushing for over 1000 yards, a career high for that season (1972).

The next three seasons saw O.J rushing for over 1000yards, and in the 1973 season O.J broke Jim Brown’s single season rushing record of over 1,863 yards, and in that same game O.J surpassed 2000 yard mark. Now, surpassing over 2000 yards is a big deal, given that during O.J’s playing years, the NFL played less games in a season then they play today.

O.J’s best game was against the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving day during the 1976 season, when he rushed for a record braking 273 yards and two touchdowns.

His 1977 season was cut short because of injury, and the following season, O.J was traded to the San Francisco 49ers. O.J played one more season before he retired from football. In 1985 O.J was inducted into pro football’s Hall of Fame.

Post football O.J started to concentrate on acting. O.J was doing professional acting since his days at USC. In fact he used the idea of pursuing acting rather than playing football as leverage when he negotiated his contract with the Buffalo Bills.

His first acting gig was in an uncredited role on the series “Dragnet.” While he was negotiating his contract with the Bills, O.J snagged a role in the first episode of “medical center.”

After football O.J appeared in the mini series “Roots,” and in motion pictures such as The Klansman, The Towering Inferno, The Cassandra Crossing, and Capricorn One. During the 1980’s O.J appeared in the Leslie Nielsen’ Naked Gun trilogy movies.

The most famous appearance was being a spokesman for the rent a car company Heartz. Appearing in classic advertising that saw him running through airports.  

At the time of the incident involving his ex-wife Nicole Simpson, O.J was working on a pilot film for a series called Frogman. It was suppose to be an A-team style adventure series which was just completed right before the incident involving his ex-wife.  

In addition to his acting gigs O.J was a commentator on Monday Night Football and the NFL on NBC.