Man, what a day that was. I was still working my job as a sports clerk at the U-T in San Diego. Leaving for work in the afternoon, I heard that O.J. was supposed to turn himself in. On the car radio, I had on Jim Rome and he reported O.J. hadn't appeared and they had a search going on. Arrived at the newsroom and the TV was on with Robert Kardashian (Yes, their dad) reading what sure sounded like a suicide note to the press, and I'm figuring it's a matter of time before they find his body. Then, a desker listening to the radio with his earbuds in said to everyone, "Hey, someone just spotted O.J. riding in a vehicle on the freeway." From there, we watched what became the most famous Ford Bronco in history.
More things I remember:
-- The ABC News clip shown above where Al Michaels identified the call as a prank. I remember listening and thinking "that guy can't be real,' and the "Baba Booey" confirmed it. As soon as I heard that, I was waiting to see if someone would call it out. Can always depend on Uncle Al.
-- The number of people calling in asking for a reporter and claiming they had inside information on the case and giving us conspiracy theories, essentially making the "Baba Booey" guy sound sane in comparison. Luckily, the editor had already told us to just transfer those calls to news.
-- A few days before, when O.J. came back to LA for questioning (he was conveniently out of town for a couple of days, wink, wink), our news department had featured that story prominently -- on page A3 our "California and the West" page. During the chase, the sports guys were joking that thing were so crazy in the newsroom that they had to "rip up page 3."
