February 18, 1999
Web posted at: 7:12 p.m. EST (0012 GMT)

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- A Philadelphia steel company owner has bought O.J. Simpson's Heisman trophy -- partly to impress his girlfriend.

Tom Kreissman, 47, showed up Thursday at the auction house of Butterfield and Butterfield to pick up the trophy. He made the winning bid by phone at Tuesday night's auction, $230,000 plus a 15 percent sales commission.

"I wanted to impress my girlfriend, and also it's an investment," he said. He expects to lock up the trophy after "the novelty wears off" and sell it later.

"The reason I bought it is because of everything it represents as far as the trial of the century and O.J.'s whole career ... the tragedy that was his life. And I just think in the future it is going to be worth a lot of money," he said.

"It's got a whole mystique about it, and to be able to own something like that, I don't think there is anything bad connected with it, I really don't."

The Heisman was among approximately 70 items auctioned off by Butterfield and Butterfield.

The 1968 Heisman Trophy was awarded by the Downtown Athletic Club of New York when Simpson was a senior at the University of Southern California. The Heisman is considered the most prestigious award in college football.

Simpson was acquitted in a criminal trial but convicted in a civil proceeding for the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, whose families agreed to split the proceeds from the sale of Simpson's seized assets.

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