The evening of January 30, 1994 was winding down at the Ritz Carlton hotel bar in Atlanta’s swanky Buckhead district when O.J. Simpson became determined to keep the party going.
The retired Bills legend turned NFL sideline reporter had spent the evening working the Super Bowl XXVIII – at which the Dallas Cowboys had triumphed over Buffalo at the newly constructed Georgia Dome.
But with the after party crowd tiring, and with Hollywood glitterati like Kevin Costner making their way to the exits, Simpson and his fellow stranded travelers were looking for another venue.
It was then that Nicole Brown, Simpson’s ex-wife and mother to two of his five children, suggested they find somewhere to go dancing.
The had couple divorced 18 months earlier and, in just six months time, Simpson would stand accused of brutally murdering the stunning 35-year-old and her friend Ronald Goldman outside her LA condo. But in early 1994, Simpson and Brown were said to be considering a reconciliation – and so it was that they set out on the town with a group of friends in search of an Atlanta dance club.
Simpson always had a car at his disposal in those days thanks to his endorsement deal with Hertz. So into the back of the sedan climbed Simpson’s old teammate, Bob Chandler, as well as his LA neighbors Ron and Cora Fischman, the latter of whom would testify at O.J.’s 1997 civil trial.
(From left) ABC Sports’ Don Meredith, Jim Lampley, Frank Gifford and OJ Simpson
O.J. Simpson and Nicole Brown Simpson at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City
In the front, Simpson was at the wheel along a bench seat that also included Brown and NBC Sports host Jim Lampley, whom the Hall of Famer usually referred to as ‘Lamp.’
‘You know, Lamp, when we find this dance club, I want to see you and Nicole dance,’ Simpson told Lampley, as the legendary announcer recently recalled to the Daily Mail at a busy Manhattan steakhouse. ‘I’ve always sort of featured in my mind how good that would look. I think the two of you are a natural fit for each other. I want to see you and Nicole dance tonight.’
Now 75, Lampley remembers the awkwardness and embarrassment he felt at Simpson’s bizarre request.
Lampley, then 44, was still married to his first wife, but it was Simpson’s reputation for debauchery that was more concerning than anything in that moment.
‘Now, I had already heard some crazy stuff, Hollywood stuff,’ Lampley continued in his famously clean, crisp delivery. ‘I didn’t know what to think about it… but now O.J.’s sitting here talking about how he wants me to dance with Nicole.’
It was then that Lampley saw an opening, and just as Simpson did so often on the gridiron, the long-time sports anchor ran for daylight.
‘I began thinking,’ Lampley said, now quoting his inner monologue, ‘”We’re still in the Bible Belt. It is Sunday night. Yeah, it’s getting pretty close to midnight. I think there’s a chance that we may not find a dance club”.’
Luck proved to be on Lampley’s side that night. The group never found a dance club, so he avoided any of the discomfort he’d so genuinely feared.
In the long run, the others in the car were far less fortunate. Within a year, Brown was murdered, Simpson was standing trial, the Fischmans were being called to testify, and Chandler was dead from cancer.
That night proved to be the last time Lampley would see Simpson until long after the Hall of Famer’s infamous 1995 acquittal – something the announcer now disagrees with wholeheartedly.
As Lampley explains in his upcoming autobiography, It Happened! A Uniquely Lucky Life in Sports Television, it was Simpson’s infamous slow-speed chase through the LA freeways that changed everything. Lampley hadn’t even considered Simpson’s guilt until seeing a fleet of LAPD cruisers in pursuit of AC Cowlings’ white Ford Bronco, where OJ was threatening to take his own life.
Simpson appears alongside his former USC and Bills teammate, Bob Chandler, who was said to be on hand that night in Atlanta in 1994 when Juice popped his bizarre question to Lampley
Lampley’s autobiography, ‘It Happened!’, will be released on April 15. The legendary announcer recently sat down with Daily Mail for a meal at a busy Manhattan steakhouse (right)
Lampley said he realized OJ Simpson was guilty of murder during the infamous Bronco chase
Twenty years earlier, Lampley felt intoxicated by his first encounter with Simpson in Rotunda, Florida at the 1974 Superstars – an individual competition featuring athletes from across different sports.
Simpson, who would win the event a year later, was already one of America’s biggest superstars, having recently completed his historic 2,000-yard rushing season in Buffalo.
‘That night, I vividly remember lying in bed and vibrating and thinking to myself: “I am friends with O.J. Simpson,”‘ Lampley told Daily Mail. ‘I mean, in 1974 he’s coming off of the 2,000-yard rushing season. He’s the biggest thing in the culture by far. And I’m friends with him.’
They grew even closer while serving as two of the younger announcers for ABC’s coverage of the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal.
‘We wind up socializing in Montreal,’ Lampley said. ‘We go out to dinner and drinks and dancing together, etc, etc.’
Years later, Lampley relocated to Los Angeles to work for KCBS-TV, while continuing his ‘NFL on NBC’ hosting duties back in New York City on Sundays. Typically that meant spending time with Simpson during the week in LA before flying with Juice to NBC Sports studios for weekend NFL action.
‘I’m flying to New York every Saturday with O.J., and flying back after the show on Sunday,’ Lampley said. ‘So once again, through this work circumstance, I’m friends with O.J. and spending a lot of time with him. And you know, all that leads to social time with O.J. and Nicole.’
O.J. Simpson and Nicole Brown attend a screening during the San Francisco International Film Festival, followed by an afterparty at the St. Francis Hotel, in his home town
O.J. Simpson and Nicole Brown Simpson (1959-1994) walk the red carpet with their children Jason Simpson, Sydney and Justin as they attend the ‘Naked Gun 33 1/3’ premiere
Months had passed since Simpson’s painfully awkward request to watch Lampley dance with Brown in Atlanta.
Among several notable sporting events, Lampley called Michael Moorer’s upset of heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield over that time, and by June, found himself shooting an infomercial for the Riviera Country Club.
‘I’m on the practice tee at Riviera Country Club shooting a stupid infomercial for a windfall of money that I never should have fallen prey to,’ the silver-haired Lampley said to the table as Debra, his wife of 13 years, offered a knowing smile.
‘A makeup artist, he’s there on the practice tee, says: “Hey, did you hear about Nicole Simpson?… She was murdered last night.”‘
Lampley fell into a panic. Frantically, he tried to learn as many facts about the situation as possible before flying to London the following day to cover Wimbledon. But for all the possibilities Lampley was considering, Simpson murdering Brown in cold blood wasn’t among them.
So when reporters reached out from The New York Times and USA Today, Lampley confidently signaled Simpson’s innocence by declaring, ‘not our guy.’ Both newspapers ran with the quotes and featured them prominently in the days that followed.
Lampley wasn’t yet regretting his statements to the press when he arrived in London, but things came into focus after pre-Wimbledon rehearsals on Friday, June 17.
‘I go back to the Athenaeum Hotel, turn on the television set, CNN, Bronco chase, and I’m sitting there on the sofa, feeling as though all the air has come out of me, realizing the insanity of what I have said in public,’ Lampley continues, his voice now quivering.
‘There is only one reason in the world that O.J. is in the back of the Bronco with Al Cowlings driving down the 405,’ Lampley conceded. ‘That’s just as obvious as anything could possibly be. And that goes along, and I’m devastated.’
PICTURED: Ronald Goldman, who was murdered with Nicole Brown Simpson June 12, 1994
Fred and Kim Goldman, father and sister of Ronald Goldman, appear with media in June of ’94
Simpson maintained his innocence at the time, while threatening to take his own life. He’d ultimately surrender and go to trial, where was acquitted on October 3, 1995 amid widespread criticism of the LAPD and the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
By that time, Lampley was convinced of Simpson’s guilt. In his mind, the Brown and Goldman families were being denied justice, while Simpson was getting away with a double murder.
For some reason, Lampley felt compelled to rush over to Lakeside Country Club, where he knew he could find the one person who’d seen every second of the murder trial.
‘Where’s Jack?’ Lampley recalled asking staff.
Jack Nicholson was in the prime of his career at 58 and spent much of his free time watching the Lakers or golfing around LA. But no matter what was on Nicholson’s schedule, Lampley said the Hollywood legend would return home every night to watch the daily courtroom recordings from the trial.
‘I grab the cart, go out to the seventh green and watch from behind as Jack Nicholson rolls in an eight-foot putt that I know is going to be marked on the scorecard as a par regardless of how many strokes might have preceded it,’ Lampley said, once again maintaining his perfectly professional delivery.
Asked ‘Lamp, what are you doing?’ by Nicholson, Lampley informed the actor that the jury had reached a verdict in just four hours of deliberation.
‘Not guilty,’ Nicholson accurately guessed without any hesitation.
Murder defendant O.J. Simpson (R) consults with friend Robert Kardashian (C) and Alvin Michelson (L), the attorney representing Kardashian, during a 1994 hearing in Los Angeles
When pressed how he could possibly know the jury would return a not-guilty verdict, Nicholson laid it out succinctly.
‘Nine black jurors, no witness, no murder weapon,’ Nicholson responded, as quoted by Lampley. ‘They’ve been sequestered for 11 months. They wanted to go to lunch.’
As he explained to Daily Mail, Lampley quickly recognized Nicholson was right and the realities of the trial had always favored Simpson, who suddenly seemed to be ‘getting off.’
But to Lampley’s surprise, when he said as much to Nicholson, he was immediately contradicted.
‘What you just said is the last thing that happened,’ Lampley recalled Nicholson telling him. ‘He didn’t ”get off.” This is the worst thing that could happen to him.’
Nicholson knew the not-guilty verdict would haunt Simpson, who was ultimately exiled from the public life he once cherished.
Simpson was later found liable for Brown and Goldman’s deaths at civil trial, and his life continued to deteriorate thereafter. He was sentenced to 16 years in a Nevada prison for an armed robbery in 2008, and although he was granted early release in 2017, Simpson lived just seven more years before dying from cancer.
Lampley now concedes that Nicholson was right about the not-guilty verdict and how it would impact someone who’d come to define himself by his own celebrity.
‘Every point from [the verdict] forward to his death proved the validity of what Jack said,’ Lampley explained. ‘That’s innate understanding of what it is to be a public figure.’
Jim Lampley and his wife Debra arrive at Smile Design Gallery’s ‘The Art of Boxing’ in 2016
(From left to right) HBO Sports’ Larry Merchant, Lennox Lewis and Jim Lampley
But not every public figure had such insight at the time.
Lampley briefly diluted himself into thinking Simpson was innocent, while fellow ABC Sports alum Al Michaels took even longer to reach that conclusion. Other Simpson friends like NBC executive Don Ohlmeyer, Robert Kardashian and Cowlings attended his shocking acquittal party at the infamous Brentwood estate.
It would be easy for Lampley to look down his nose at Ohlmeyer and Kardashian, both of whom have since passed, or Cowlings, Simpson’s obsessively devoted friend and teammate.
But instead of any sanctimony, Lampley shares a story that humanizes those around Simpson, if not the accused murderer himself.
‘Wimbledon ends and because of my then-wife, I have to go back to Los Angeles through Minnesota to visit her family upstate,’ Lampley begins.
The Lampley clan eventually flew home on July 4, 1994, but were confronted with the trial long before their arrival in LA.
‘Tommy James of Tommy James & the Shondells — Crystal Blue Persuasion’ fame — he’s on the plane quizzing me about O.J.,’ Lampley recalled, dropping another in a series of celebrated names. ‘Lots of other people on plane talking about O.J., following morning is the first day of pre-trial hearings, and Kato Kaelin is is going to be testifying.
‘So I’m a little on edge. You know, my friend is going to be coming up on a murder trial that’s starting tomorrow morning, and we know it’s going to be on TV and stuff like that,’ he added.
Lampley had come to believe Simpson was guilty by this point, but he was still untangling himself from the defendant in ways he could have never predicted.
‘In order to understand O.J.’s appeal, in order to understand why people like Don Ohlmeyer never gave up saying he was innocent all the way through the entire ordeal, you had to know who O.J. was,’ Lampley said.
‘Among all your friends in Hollywood, he was the most thoughtful, considerate and generous in terms of occasions and social niceties. If you had a birthday or an anniversary in your family — O.J. owns stock in Miss Grace’s Lemon Cake and Honey Baked Hams — you would receive a Miss Grace’s lemon cake and a Honey Baked ham right on that date.’
O.J. Simpson and Nicole Brown go to see the play “Come Blow Your Horn” at Hollywood’s Huntington Hartford Theatre in 1981. The two would marry in 1985 and divorce in 1992
And it wasn’t just the ham or the lemon cake, both of which were preservable and could hang around the refrigerator waiting for the right moment to be devoured.
Simpson would frequently offer Lampley a room to stay in New York, and often surprised guests with his comically sentimental taste in music.
‘He would go to the stereo and play Celine Dion,’ Lampley said before quoting Simpson once again.
‘This is me and Nicole’s song,’ Simpson would tell him. ‘This is all about us. This our relationship.’
Now well into the main course, Lampley redirected the dinner conversation back to 1994 and his family’s LA home, where everyone was battling colds following their return from the airport.
‘We all go to bed as soon as we arrive back, I wake up at 4:30, 5 o’clock in the morning, starved, okay? Didn’t eat on the plane. Haven’t eaten since yesterday morning in Minneapolis,’ Lampley said.
‘Now here it is, 24 hours later, and we’ve been gone for three weeks. So what the hell is going to be here to eat?’
Lampley’s tone, which was so cheerful a moment earlier, turned dark.
‘Go to the refrigerator,’ he continued. ‘Miss Grace’s lemon cake.
‘Still can’t stop the tears,’ Lampley recalled, crying once again. ‘I sat down, cried my eyes out because nothing could have been more painfully symbolic of where my journey now was.’
Simpson attends a parole hearing at Lovelock Correctional Center July 20, 2017 in Nevada
Through his historic run as HBO Sports’ voice of boxing, Lampley would cross paths with Simpson two more times.
The first was at an Oscar De La Hoya post-fight party in Las Vegas, where Lampley admitted to sneaking out the back door to avoid a face-to-face encounter.
‘I vilified myself for weeks,’ Lampley said. ‘How could you do that?’
Lampley vowed he would talk to Simpson if they ever saw each other again.
‘Even if it’s just to tell him that I love,’ Lampley said, cutting himself off abruptly before continuing.
‘[Simpson] came to a Roy Jones fight in Atlanta, [I] sat directly across the ring from him,’ Lampley continued, his voice no longer quivering.
‘We nodded to each other. We acknowledged each other. By the end of the evening, I thought to myself, “I’m done. I really don’t need to.” Because, you know, it’s only become more and more clear over time that he murdered Nicole.’
The long-time voice of ABC’s Wide World of Sports and HBO Boxing, Lampley currently serves as an analyst and commentator for PPV.com. His autobiography, ‘It Happened!’, will be released on April 15. Meanwhile, the soon-to-be 76-year-old Lampley will be calling the action from Times Square with Devin Haney, Ryan Garcia and Teofimo Lopez featured in a triple-header on May 2.
