USC Football will not welcome O.J. Simpson back to campus

O.J. Simpson will not be invited or welcomed back to USC football events going forward after being granted parole last week in Las Vegas.

When O.J. Simpson is released in October after being granted parole by the Nevada Parole Board last week, he will not be welcomed back to USC with open arms.

“No, O.J will not be a part of functions or invited,” Trojan head coach Clay Helton spoke about the former USC Heisman winner’s relationship with the university going forward at Pac-12 Media Days on Thursday. “That’s been the statement by the university.”

Even before his incarceration for armed robbery and kidnapping in 2008, Simpson was not a visible figure around USC.

Notably, Simpson attended a USC practice ahead of the 2003 Orange Bowl, posing for pictures and mingling with players. However, that was the first Trojan practice he had attended since he was acquitted of the double murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ronald Goldman in 1995.

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The Trojans still display Simpson’s Heisman Trophy at Heritage Hall and feature his retired No. 32 at the LA Coliseum on game days. However, Simpson will not be leading USC out of the tunnel any time going forward.

Before his legal trouble began, Simpson starred at USC at running back, winning the Heisman Trophy in 1968 with the most lopsided margin in history. He was a two-time unanimous All-American before moving onto the pros where he finished his career as the second-leading rusher in NFL history.

READ MORE: Power Ranking USC’s Best Running Backs of All-Time

On the back of his successful playing career, Simpson worked as a TV analyst before he was arrested and charged with the 1994 murders. He was acquitted of those criminal charges in 1995 but was found guilty in a civil suit brought against him by Goldman’s family.

Simpson remained in the public eye thanks to a series of run-ins with the law over the course of the next decade before he was arrested, charged and convicted of robbery in Las Vegas.