O.J.: Made in America

As a kid growing up in the ghetto,

one of the things I wanted most was not money, it was fame.

I wanted to be known. I want the people to say, "Hey, there goes O.J."

You're approaching five years now at Lovelock.

Tell us about your work assignments.

How have you occupied your time for the past five years?

Uh, when I first came here, I was a porter,

which comprised of cleaning things in the unit that I was in,

and basically after a relatively short period of time,

I started working as a gym worker.

I start each day, um, disinfecting, uh, the workout equipment in the gym,

mopping floors with the other, uh, group of us that work in the gym.

Uh, I've coached teams, um, uh, since I've been here.

Uh, and I like to say that we won the championship,

and we were old guys, a totally mixed group of players.

I didn't play, I just coached.

I do see that in 1994 you were arrested at the age of 46.

We... We're talking about this case?

No, the age at first arrest.

How old were you, first time you were arrested? For any reason.

Um, I think about 46, yes.

With an enrollment of approximately 16,000 students,

this is the largest and oldest university

of continuous existence in Southern California.

Its buildings and grounds cover 45 acres

and it has graduated many thousands of men and women

who are now leaders in the business and professional world.

I didn't know that much about him.

I heard about his reputation coming out of junior college.

He was big, fast, powerful, dynamic.

You're awed, because you haven't seen that.

I was teaching part-time at San Jose State and a friend of mine said,

"Hey, man, you gotta go check out this little cat from, um, San Francisco.

His name is Simpson. Orenthal James Simpson."

O.J. takes the football. Boom.

I think he runs about 90 yards with it for a touchdown.

He ran through 'em like foreign water through a tourist.

San Jose State was trying to recruit him, and I asked him,

"O.J., what is it that you're lookin' for?"

Said, "I wanna be the best.

I wanna go to a school where I play against the best."

Superstar phenom is coming to USC

and all the buzz that goes around with it.

This is Marguerite Simpson.

She and O.J. have been married for five months now.

Right.

Are you happy after five months?

Yes, I'm very happy.

And do you like this campus and everything?

I love it. It's like a resort. It's beautiful.

Now, you tell us the truth, Marguerite. What kind of guy is O.J.?

O.J. is very serious. He loves football.

And he's just a serious person.

He has a great running sense.

Uh, as a team man, he's an outstanding person.

As a citizen, he is a tremendous boy and, uh,

I don't think we've had a boy around here who has ever been any better.

Whoo! Get up!

It was pretty obvious early on that O.J. was a superiorathlete, special,

and Coach McKay was warmer and closer with him.

He had never had a player of this caliber. And you didn't mess with it.

He protected him.

Johnny, would you describe that devastating

Southern Cal offensive attack for us?

Well, Duffy, I don't... I don't know how devastating it is, but our attack

is built around the, uh, tailback, O.J. Simpson, running a football.

We think our attack will be able to let us move the ball on most people.

There was no drama.

John McKay was gonna give him the football,

and he was gonna give it to him 35, 40 times a game

and you were gonna tackle him.

And then when you missed, we were gonna score a touchdown.

So we fed him the football, fed him the football...

He had incredible stamina,

that he could take the ball every play and keep on going.

Every game he did something that was eye-opening.

You... "What? Did I see that?"

He was one of a kind.

This is O.J. Simpson, USC's junior halfback.

You have been getting an awful lot of publicity lately.

How does it affect you? Does it bother ya?

Oh, it doesn't bother me at all.

It's... It's a matter of winning, I guess.

If you win, you get publicity,

and they have to give someone in our offense and on our team publicity,

and, uh, I'm just in a position to get it,

running at the tailback and carrying the ball as much as I do.

O.J., you've got an awful big game on Saturday.

It's the big intercity rivalry. There's just all kind of pressure.

How does the pressure affect you?

Well, uh, I don't know.

I don't think the pressure bothers...

It doesn't bother me and...

and I think most of the team right now, it's not bothering them yet.

I'm sure it will tomorrow.

We're shooting for all the marbles this week,

and, uh, I think we'll be relaxed and ready to go.

USC football is not a matter of life and death.

It's much more important than that.

Live and in color, you are looking at this view,

hovering above the Memorial Coliseum which is jam packed today.

As we look at Gary Beban, a reminder that college football,

a pleasant and colorful way to spend an autumn afternoon.

UCLA's quarterback was Gary Beban.

It's gonna be his year for the Heisman Trophy.

So we have the upcomer running back

against the established superstar quarterback.

We were ranked number 4, they were ranked number 1.

The city of Los Angeles, the two top teams in the country,

and we're fighting for the national championship.

Today with 10 cameras covering this game,

over 200, uh, newsmen here, 200 photographers.

There were people out here this morning at 6 o'clock

trying to get in to the ballgame.

And the ballgame is underway.

I had never been to a college game ever.

And we all wanted to go see O.J.

Offensively now for the Trojans, watch for number 32, O.J. Simpson.

None of us had any tickets.

All of a sudden, we looked up and someone had cut a hole

in the Coliseum fence and about 50 people ran through it, including us.

Okay, Bud, we have approximately 9 minutes remaining in the first half.

I'd never seen the Coliseum full like that.

There was just the colors, I was in awe.

Tie ballgame, and they are in UCLA territory. Steve Sogge. Simpson.

There's his brilliance. Thirteen yards. Touchdown.

A tremendously gifted athlete, number 32, O.J. Simpson.

Everybody loved watching O.J. run.

As we look at it in slow motion...

There was something about his style.

... O.J. Simpson.

I said, "Man, if I could but run half as well as this guy,

I might be all right."

Beban hooking. Deep and long to Copeland.

UCLA has tied it up.

There is Nuttall.

Touchdown, UCLA.

And with 11 minutes and 40 seconds left in the game UCLA gets the lead.

We were losing. And we were fighting.

O.J. Simpson is deep. Number 32.

And he's determined.

We were outplaying them,

and we were very angry that we were not winning that game.

Thirty. Moving away,

and sheer sake of effort brings him out to the 43-yard line.

Things weren't going our way until that run.

Rose Bowl bid, Bud, is at stake.

Everything that they've fought for all year,

it's coming down to the wire now, Chris. These final minutes.

At the 36-yard line, a 4-yard gain,

it'll be third down at three for the Trojans.

It was a pass play.

They need three yards.

In the audible, and some guys missed the audible.

I couldn't hear it. I made a mistake. I stood up to pass block.

The linebacker read me and backed into his passing zone,

and that opened up a lane for O.J.

And he did his magic.

First down and more. There's Simpson.

Look at that cut! O.J. Simpson!

All she wrote.

64 yards. 64 thrilling, captivating, collegiate football yards,

and let's look at that one again. Wow.

Don't recall seeing anybody that can turn it on like this boy, Chris.

If you were a football fan in the late '60s and someone said to you,

"Do you remember the run," it was just one run.

That set O.J. apart from everyone.

He's so much faster, it makes no difference.

That single play is still felt to be one of the greatest college plays.

He became an instant national star.

A civil rights leader in Los Angeles has said

if you are going to be a negro in a big city,

then, Los Angeles is the best place to be.

The image of Los Angeles was milk and honey.

There's no prejudice in Los Angeles. Everybody's free to do what they will.

You know, palm trees and sunshine. It's just the ultimate place.

And anybody who was trying to go somewhere, at least in my area,

you know, they were going to Los Angeles.

There is no group in America to whom California has meant more

than it has to the negroes.

In the two decades between 1940 and 1960,

while the population of all other groups in Los Angeles

went up by 100 percent, the negro population went up by 600 percent.

Where do the people come from?

People come from the states of Texas, Louisiana, Georgia...

The hope is that all the trouble I've known will be gone.

2, 4, 6, 8, we don't wanna integrate!

I will no longer be held down by this notion

held against my skin and my hair.

More literally, I can get work because it's growing so fast here.

And I can buy a house,

and nobody's ever gonna come take it away from me because I'm black.

This is something that you didn't have in the deep South.

The Simpsons are from Rodessa, Louisiana.

My parents and his parents, they grew up on a 200-acre farm.

Although they had land, there was no opportunity for people of color,

so everybody "got out of Dodge", as they say.

O.J. and I were born in San Francisco in '47.

He had aspirations.

He knew that he wanted to better his circumstances,