O.J. Simpson died Wednesday of prostate cancer, his family announced Thursday. He was 76 years old.
During his football playing days, Simpson — the Heisman Trophy winner in 1968, and College and Pro Football Hall of Famer — had one of the sport's most memorable performances in 1976 against the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving at the Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan. Simpson carried 29 times for a then-record 273 rushing yards and two touchdowns, but the Lions defeated the Buffalo Bills, 27-14.
Simpson was a standout running back at USC, in the NFL with the Bills, and a broadcaster and actor, before he was accused of stabbing to death his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman, in Los Angeles in 1994. Simpsonwas acquitted on both counts of murder during a televised trial that both gripped and divided the country. Two years later, the jury in a civil trial found Simpsonliable for the double murder, and he was ordered to pay $33.5 million to survivors, including his children and Goldman’s family. He later served nine years in prison for armed robbery in a confrontation with two sports memorabilia dealers. He wasgranted parole in 2017.
Here's a story originally published by the Free Press in 2017 about that Thanksgiving game against the Lions in 1976:
Joe DeLamielleurewatched arguably the most memorable game in Lions’ Thanksgiving history from the second deck at Tiger Stadium in 1962.
DeLamielleure was 11 years old, a strident Lions fan and budding football star who had no way of knowingthathe was on his way to a Hall of Fame career as an offensive guard.
As the Lions tormented Bart Starr that day with 11 sacks and upset the unbeatable Green Bay Packers in a game that came to be known as the Thanksgiving Day Massacre, DeLamielleure turned to his father in the seat next to him and said: "I’m going to play in this game one day, too."
“He said, ‘If you do, I’ll be there,’ ” DeLamielleure recalled. “That’s what he said. He said, ‘If you do, I’ll be there.’”
Fourteen years later, DeLamielleure made good on his promise when the Bills played the Lions on Thanksgiving Day, 1976, in another one of the tradition’s unforgettable games.
DeLamielleure’s father, Joe, had suffered a heart attack in the weeks before the game and was unable to attend in person, so DeLamielleure asked Bills coach Jim Ringoif they could run a few extra plays his way.
“I wanted him to run a couple sweeps so the announcer would say, ‘Hey, great block by DeLamielleure,’ if that would ever happen,” DeLamielleure said. “I knew that there was a possibility if they ever announced your name as an offensive lineman (it was), ‘Holding, DeLamielleure, No. 68.’”
Ringo called more than a few sweeps DeLamielleure’s way that day asO.J. Simpson, running behind two Detroit-born linemen — DeLamielleure and left guard Reggie McKenzie — broke his own single-game NFL rushing record with 273 yards.
The Lions won, 27-14, Simpson accounted for both Bills touchdowns, and for DeLamielleure and McKenzie, playing in the game was a childhood dream come true.
DeLamielleure said he went to “at least 10 Thanksgiving games as a kid,” and his family usually celebrated with a turkey dinner after the game at the bar his father owned, Victory Inn, in Warren.
With no practice scheduled in 1976 for the weekend, Ringo gave his Bills time off and both DeLamielleure and McKenzie decided to stay in Michigan and spend the holiday with family.
McKenzie went home to Highland Park for his mother’s annual Thanksgiving feast after the game, and he brought a special guest with him: Simpson.
They ate turkey and ham, potato salad and green beans, and had sweet potato pie and chocolate cake for desert. The mayor of Highland Park even stopped by because, of course, “He wanted to see O.J.”
“We had a party at my mother’s house and she was smiling from ear to ear,” McKenzie said. “It was a good day. It was something that a lot of people often come up to me and say, ‘Hey man, you remember when O.J. came back for Thanksgiving?’ But we lost the game.
“It was great that we ran for 200-some yards, but we lost the game. We had been used to going to the playoffs. That was it was all about.”
For DeLamielleure, the loss put alittledamper on the day, too, until he walked into the bar and saw that his father had checked himself out of the hospital to be there.
As they celebrated with a hundred or so family members and friends, DeLamielleure found his father and told him he should still be in the hospital.
Big Joe, an Archie Bunker sound-a-like, told him in no uncertain terms: "I told you if you ever played in the game, I’d be here so I’m here."
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: O.J. Simpson's memorable NFL game: On Thanksgiving vs. Detroit Lions
