O.J. Simpson and the Ford Bronco are forever intertwined in pop culture

That moment in 1994 played out like a made-for-TV crime drama: A white Ford Bronco being tracked live on national television in a slow-motion L.A. police chase.

The vehicle was driven by Al Cowlings, but in the backseat was Cowling’s friend and former football teammate, O.J. Simpson, who would go on to be tried — and controversially acquitted — of charges that he killed his former wife and her friend in what become dubbed the Trial of the Century. (He would be found liable for their deaths years later in a civil suit.)

That moment would also cement the Ford Bronco forever in our brains. And it’s been noteworthy that following news this week that Simpson has died from cancer at 76, there’s been a resurgence of interest in the SUV.

Where is that white Bronco now? The New York Times reports that the vehicle resides in the Alcatraz East Crime Museum in Pigeon Forge, Tenn. On Thursday, the museum reportedly taped a label acknowledging Simpson’s death on a plexiglass case next to the Bronco that displays a set of Simpson’s golf clubs.

Both Simpson and his football buddy, Cowlings, drove identical white Broncos at the time of Simpson’s arrest. Simpson’s ride, which contained blood evidence and was impounded by the court, was destroyed after his trial. Cowlings’ Bronco is the one 95 million people watched live on TV.

Why were celebrity athletes who could afford better tooling around in what was essentially a shortened F-Series pickup with a removable top? The brash, bulky Bronco was macho as hell. That televised chase only added to its rebellious, tough persona.

And then there were the revivals. The year 2016 brought us ESPN’s O.J.: Made In America documentary and then FX hit us with the dramatized The People vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story. During the 2017 Golden Globes musical opener, actress Sarah Paulson, who played prosecutor Marcia Clark in the FX series, sang in front of a white ‘93 Bronco parked on the red carpet. She went on to win for her portrayal of Clark.

The very next day, in an instance of coincidental, but seemingly prophetic timing, Ford announced at the Detroit Auto Show that the Bronco, which went out of production in 1996, would return in 2020. Executives even flashed an animation of the bucking bronco logo on the jumbotron.

Today, in 2024, you can order a Bronco in no fewer than nine variations, ranging from the humble Big Bend edition at $36,600 to the celeb-worthy Raptor at $90,000. The new Bronco is decidedly more sophisticated than the utilitarian version we all watched in that infamous chase scene. But somehow, the mystique of the ultimate rough-and-tumble getaway ride remains.