A Heisman Trophy winner, an NFL MVP, a Hall of Famer and the first running back to eclipse the 2,000-yard mark in a single season — these are the accomplishments of the man many knew as the "Juice."

O.J. Simpson, the electric half-back who lit up NFL defenses for 11 seasons, died on Wednesday after battling with prostate cancer. He was 76 years old.

"He was a great football player. He had a great stamp of approval leaving the NFL," KCAL Sports Director Jim Hill said. 

However, Simpson's legal troubles following his remarkable NFL career overshadowed many of his athletic achievements. 

"He was a role model for all of our young kids. We could see our young kids talking about how 'I wanted to be like O.J., and that was terrific," Hill said. "That image, at that time, was destroyed."

Despite his athletic achievements, Simpson is best known for the notorious 11-month trial for the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. While he was found not guilty of the pair's murder in 1995, a civil court found him liable for wrongful death and battery in 1997. He was ordered to pay nearly $33.5 million in damages to the Brown and Goldman families.

"There are a lot of people in their heart who believe that he was guilty," Hill said. "Locally, in this community, and around the country a lot of people are very upset at the final decision."

A decade later, Simpson found himself in legal trouble once again when he led five men to steal some of his old sports memorabilia back from a pair of dealers in Las Vegas. Two men with Simpson had guns, resulting in Simpson being sentenced to 33 years in prison after a jury found him guilty of armed robbery and other felonies. 

Simpson served nine years in prison before getting released on parole in 2017. 

Apart from his NFL career, where he tallied over 11,000 rushing yards and scored 75 touchdowns, Simpson was a revered college football player, with the USC Trojans retiring his No. 32 jersey. 

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