Cool Zone is delayed by OJ Simpson in his Bronco on the Way to the World Cup.
This photo was taken at opening day for World Cup in Los Angeles at Rose Bowl on June 18, 1994.
On June 17th, 1994, I woke early up in Rancho Penasquitos (part of SD) at an old girlfriend’s home. I jumped into a Penske truck and drove to a “Microcool” a professional misting system manufacturer in Palm Springs. At that location I picked up a high-pressure pump and line for an inflatable mister.
We had been hired by Budweiser to put up Inflatable Misters in Tampa Bay, Dallas, New York and at World Cup Headquarters in Los Angeles. The inflatable misters had already been sent and put up in the other three locations, leaving only Los Angeles to finish.
Budweiser executives were coming by at 10 AM the following day in Pasadena to inspect their investment.
After I picked up the high-pressure misting system in Palm Springs I had to drive to El Cajon in San Diego to a Company by the name of “Bigger Than Life” , a world leader in making custom inflatables.
Upon arrival, I was met by chaos and havoc due to the amount of production they had sent out to the World Cup had overloaded their workers. I remember their ‘Director of Production’ becoming upset when I was there and quitting, not because of me!
Therefore, I had to wait to one of the owners, Ann Wawer, to have the inflatable loaded in the truck. She mumbled something about OJ Simpson and walked away and I jumped in the truck to drive to Rose Bowl.
I was driving up the 405 around Huntington Beach when the freeway came to a complete stop. I tried to figure out what was happening for a while, the phone at the time was horrible and the AM radio station barely came in. Finally, I received the news that the freeway was closed in front of me because the Bronco containing OJ Simpson, and his Driver was travelling in front of me. Therefore, they shut down the freeway and no one was moving anywhere.
I pulled over to the right exit and I remember seeing a bar right there and I had a few beers. I also used the pay phone and connected with my comrades and the plan was for me to get a hotel and sleep until 3 and then drive to Rose Bowl. Hopefully the 405 freeway would be open by then.
The 405 freeway was open in the morning, so I drove to meet up with my Cool Zone associates plus Jon Newton at 5:30 AM.
Even with a few hiccups we had the misting inflatable (below) working and cooling people by 9:30 AM–cutting it close.
A little after ten o’clock a couple Budweiser executives came by and gave their approval by a nod of the head, never knowing what we had to go through to make the inflatable misting machine operational. The Misting Inflatable stood in the parking lot near the bathrooms for all four games at the Rose Bowl and was extremely popular with patrons. We also cooled/misted down the benches for the players on field inside the Rose Bowl.
On a side note, the source of the water for the misting inflatable was the outdoors bathrooms. So the only time the misting inflatable wasn’t working was when too many people flushed the toilet at once in the bathroom.
