O.J. Simpson was a regular visitor to Vail who was involved in an arrest in the 1980s
Vail Trail/Vail Daily archive
Before O.J. Simpson was charged, then acquitted for the murders of his former wife and friend, the famous football star, Hollywood actor and ubiquitous corporate pitchman was a regular visitor to Vail who brought an element of prestige to events in town.
Simpson, who died of prostate cancer Wednesday at 76, once made the news in Vail for a different arrest in which he was the alleged victim.
Simpson was first documented on the slopes of Vail in January of 1982 when he was photographed riding a chairlift with Ahmad Rashad of the Minnesota Vikings. Simpson and Rashad were friends for decades, dating back to their time as teammates on the Buffalo Bills in the 1970s, rooming together for road games.
After skiing Vail together in early January 1982, Simpson and Rashad returned later that month for the second annual Jerry Ford Celebrity Cup, a celebrity pro-am ski race that also brought Clint Eastwood into town.
Rashad was named Student of the Week by the Vail Ski School on Jan. 28, 1982, and used the opportunity to tease Simpson a bit.
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“After just a few days on skis with the Vail Ski School I think I was able to ski better than O.J. Simpson,” Rashad told the Vail Trail.
Simpson and Rashad returned to Vail in July of ’82 for the Second Annual Climax Tennis Invitational, and in December Simpson was back in Vail again for his fourth visit during 1982. Rashad, who was still active in the NFL at the time, did not join Simpson during the December visit but both men were scheduled to return to Vail during the summer of 1983 for another tennis tournament. When Rashad pulled out to be an announcer in the World Championships of Track and Field, however, Simpson canceled, as well.
But Simpson and Rashad returned a few years later for the Jerry Ford Celebrity Cup in 1986, and Simpson returned again in ’87, also participating in the ski event. Shops and restaurants boasted of Simpson’s visit for years to come, including the Cookshack on Vail Mountain and the Bridge Street Deli in Vail Village.
If the hat doesn’t fit …
A decade before Simpson became known for a pair of gloves not fitting his hand, a story was shared in Vail about a hat not fitting his head.
From the March 20, 1987 edition of the Vail Trail:
“Supposition holds that big-money athletes and big-name actors have big heads, and we have it from a good source that’s true — at least in the case of O.J. Simpson.
“Simpson, one of football’s former greats and now a television celebrity, be-bopped into town last week for the Ford Celebrity Cup.
“A sales clerk at Wild Bill’s hat emporium tells us she was behind a counter, doing whatever clerks do when they’re bent down their counters, when she heard a voice:
“‘Could you find one of these that fits me?’
“She looked up. and there was O.J. Simpson, holding an English driving cap.
“The clerk tried, but even the largest hat rode the top of his head like a woman sidesaddling a bucking bronco. His head was just too big.
“Despite his big head, he was a nice guy, the clerk reported.”
Continued to return following trial
Simpson continued to return to Vail and neighboring Summit County after being acquitted of murder in 1995, enjoying several different sports in the High Country.
He told the Summit Daily in 2006 that when he visited the area, he started his day with golf.
“But he’ll have to take a hiatus from golf soon,” wrote Kimberly Nicoletti. “In two weeks, doctors will replace his left knee, which has endured six surgeries. Last year, doctors replaced his right knee, which he damaged by favoring his left … And the main reason for replacing his left knee? The love of skiing.”
Simpson told Nicoletti he enjoyed going fast on his skis.
“My friends would say, ‘You just go straight. You don’t turn,'” Simpson said. “I forgot how much I like the lifestyle in the mountains. It’s a whole feel, so easy-going.”
Simpson also enjoyed hiking and rafting, as described in a 2017 blog post by Colorado writer M. John Fayhee, who said he would have fantasized about nudging Simpson off the boat in the middle of a rapid, should he have been seated next to him.
‘The town has no case’
Fayhee said he found it strange that Simpson was treated well when he visited the Colorado High Country after the murder trial, with people buying him drinks and lining up for pictures.
“He was treated not like a probable double-murderer, but, rather, like the first man to ever rush for more than 2,000 yards in a single (14-game) season, like the man who won the Heisman Trophy in 1968, like the five-time Pro Bowl selection,” Fayhee wrote.
The Vail Daily, in 2019, ran a story titled “O.J. Simpson spotted in Vail, posing for selfies” which described Simpson’s exploits in Vail during a February trip in which he was spotted in town.
“A handful of locals managed to snag pictures with Simpson in Lionshead Village,” the Daily reported.
The story also contained a video of Simpson receiving cheers and applause at Bridge Street Bar in Vail Village after he shared the mic with singer Scott Munn.
Simpson, in Nicoletti’s 2006 story, described Colorado High Country residents as “exceptionally nice,” saying “It’s hard to believe you still get a good neighborly feel somewhere.”
If Simpson had come to expect a warm reception during his visits to Colorado, it might have been because he had always been treated well, going back to his very first visit in January of 1982.
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During that visit, a man was arrested from the Marriott Mark Resort’s Shadows disco for annoying Simpson, the Vail Trail reported.
The man was underage, and the fact that he was in a 21-and-older bar, bothering Simpson, was later used as grounds to call for the removal of the liquor license from the establishment.
But when it came time for a suspension-revocation hearing on the matter, the man arrested could not be found, therefore, “the town has no case,” the Trail reported.
