Good Bye Old Friend -- A Moment in Time

"The Truth Shall Make You Free"

The year was 1965. I was attending City College of San Francisco and the occasion was our Athletic Awards dinner. It was an event where the members of the various sports teams received their individual and team awards at a dinner in which San Franciso 49ers Hall of Fame tackle Bob St. Clair was the featured speaker. The 6'9" 265 St. Clair entertained the throng, not only with his profound words in a deep, booming voice, but by eating his way through a 16 oz. raw steak, his trademark.

I had played my favorite sport, basketball, in high school, but this was college and my best sport, golf, had led me to this point, to the conference championship on a team that was truly exceptional, and several individual awards. It was a great moment and I sat just a couple of seats from my favorite football player at the time, the fabulous O.J. Simpson. We were young. We shared the same coach, former Olympic star and world record holder in the 440, Grover Klemmer, who presented each of our awards. It was exciting. It was a night to remember.

Unfortunately, O.J. would later have a couple of nights to remember that he would much rather forget. The first led to the deaths of Ron Goldman and Nicole Simpson. Another led to a botched robbery attempt that probably could be made into a movie in the vein of the Keystone Cops. Nobody is laughing this time. Is it karma? Who knows? Justice? Perhaps. Here is that moment:

OJ LED AWAY IN HANDCUFFS