Back in the spring of 2019, I walked into Heritage Hall at USC for the first time.

It is a stunning place. It is an impressive place. There's the Rose Bowl trophies, and there are the jerseys of the the All-Americans and then there are the six Heisman trophies.

Ryan McGee is a senior writer at ESPN.

And I immediately walked to the second one in that line, which is the 1968 O.J. Simpson Heisman trophy.

What you notice immediately is that it looks a little worn and the head

is shinier than the others and it's because no one can resist reaching out and touching it.

As a kid of a certain age, I would have been obsessed with it anyway because I had his poster

on my wall. But then, as an American of a certain age, I'm obsessed with it for all the wrong reasons as well.

What I found in the months since then is that the history behind that trophy and another O.J. Simpson Heism trophy is darker and weirder than you could possibly

imagine.

At the dawn of O.J. Simpson's career, he won the Heisman Award, and two of the famous Heisman statues came with it. But during his trial for murder, both statues went missing. Today, a Heisman heist that took years to solve.

I'm Mina Kimes. It's Thursday, December 12th.

This is ESPN Daily, presented by Indeed.

So, Ryan, it's December 1968.

O.J. Simpson has just won the Heisman.

Who was there and what happened?

So O.J. Simpson is in New York with his mother, and he accepts his Heism trophy.

I'm delighted to present to you this 34th Heisman trophy.

Symbolic of your achievement is the outstanding collegiate football player in the country.

Congratulations, O. Thank you.

And he's holding this trophy in his hands that immediately becomes the most important possession

of O.J. Simpson's life.

...