Return of Simpson Trophy Turns Out a Bust for USC

For awhile Wednesday evening, folks at USC thought that O.J. Simpson’s 1968 Heisman trophy--stolen a year ago from a display case in the lobby of the university’s athletic department--had been recovered.

But the small bronze statue of a football player that Redondo Beach attorney Tom Loversky handed over to them only slightly resembles the trophies handed out annually by the New York Athletic Club to the player deemed football’s best.

Loversky had called earlier in the day to report that a man had come to his office and handed over what the man said was the missing Heisman trophy. Loversky refused to name the man or say how he had acquired the trophy.

“He’s being a good Samaritan,” Loversky said. “He wished to turn it over to the university.”

Shortly after Simpson was arrested in June, 1994, and charged in the slayings of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Lyle Goldman, USC officials removed the trophy and one of Simpson’s football jerseys from their Heritage Hall display cases, fearing that someone might vandalize or steal the items.

Three days later, believing that the danger had passed, the officials returned both items to their cases. A month after that, the trophy and the jersey bearing No. 32 disappeared from the unlocked building.

“They just lifted up the plexiglass box that covered the trophy and took it, along with the jersey,” said Lt. James Kenady of USC security.

Loversky’s call that the trophy had been recovered generated quite a bit of excitement at the security department until an officer walked in with the statuette provided by the attorney.

“It doesn’t look quite right to me,” Kenady said on seeing it. “I don’t know what we’ve got.”