20 Years Later: OJ Simpson's Bronco Chase with Police

June 17, 1994 was a day I'll never forget. I was glued to my TV set like the rest of America waiting to see what would happen to the white Ford Bronco carrying OJ Simpson, who at the time was the lead suspect in the murder of his ex-wife and her friend. I just remember thinking OJ's buddy Al Cowlings was the slowest getaway driver I'd ever seen.

The 405 highway in Los Angeles sees its share of slow moving cars everyday, its one of the country's most trafficked roadways. But across the U.S. on June 17th as limousines were whizzing to Manhattan hotels picking up NBC broadcasters for the night's Game 5 of the NBA finals between the Knicks and Rockets, no one's mind was on basketball.

It would become arguably the most memorable and surreal night in modern sports history.

Twenty years ago, Simpson got into a white Ford Bronco, pointed a gun at his head and held America captive.

“It was bizarre,” analyst Matt Guokas remembers, telling MyFoxSports.com. “You had a sick feeling. It was very unnatural.”

NBC had to decide whether to stick with one of the NBA’s most important games or cut away to a police slow-chase of a possibly suicidal sports superstar who was threatening to shoot out his brains all over his friend’s SUV.

But we shouldn't be so upset that the basketball game was interrupted. David Hasselhoff had a pay-per-view concert in Atlantic City that was supposed to show the country he was more than just a TV lifeguard.

O.J. killed the competition.

The reason for the chase, if you'll recall? Simpson was scheduled to report to police the next day to be formally charged in the slaying of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her companion Ron Goldman.

He would later be famously acquitted of the murder charges.