O.J.'s Heisman Sold For $230,000 At Auction

Jet, March 8, 1999

O.J. Simpson's Heisman Trophy was sold for $230,000 at a recent auction in Los Angeles to benefit the estates of the former football star's slain ex-wife and her friend.

The trophy was expected to have been sold for $400,000. The winning bidder wanted to remain anonymous.

Other Simpson items were sold for up to $10,000 to bidders making offers by phone, in person and over the Internet.

Among the items sold were a life-sized metal statue of Simpson for $3,250, a glass University of Southern California Hall of Fame award for $1,800, and a player-of-the-year trophy given by "ABC Wide World of Sports" in 1973 for $1,700.

The auction earned $382,075, the Butterfield & Butterfield auction house said. The proceeds from the recent auction would barely "put a scratch" in the $33.5 million judgment owed to the estate of Simpson's ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and the family of Ronald Goldman, according to an attorney for the Goldmans.

The judgment stems from a civil wrongful death suit in which a jury found Simpson liable for the killings of his ex-wife and her friend, Ronald Goldman. Simpson was acquitted of murder in an earlier, highly publicized criminal trial.

Simpson lives in Los Angeles with his two young children and is fighting a custody battle with his former-in-laws, Louis and Juditha Brown.