Owen Hanson played college football as a walk-on at the University of Southern California. Caught up in the SoCal lifestyle, partying led to gambling, drugs, and a prosperous life in crime. Eventually, he got caught and is serving prison time. He just published his autobiography, and a Netflix series is in the works.
Born and raised in Southern California, Owen Hanson excelled at football in high school but could not earn a college scholarship to any college. But he tried out at USC (University of Southern California) as a walk-on after being accepted as an undergraduate student. Hanson made the squad and played on the 2004 Trojans national championship team.
Hanson loved to party and was part of the in-crowd, living the Southern California lifestyle. According to Rolling Stone, he started dealing drugs while at USC and earned the nickname “O-Dog.” “If you wanted something, you went to O-Dog,” a friend at the time recalled. “Cocaine, steroids, you name it. He got it for you.” After graduation, Hanson got heavily involved in sports betting, working as a bookie for LA clients, and graduated to running a gambling business. As one person said, “He (Hanson) ran it like an Italian gangster.”
Soon, his aspirations evolved into the drug business, and he built an empire called “O-Dog Enterprises.” Hanson built a mansion in Redondo Beach, California, replete with an Olympic-sized swimming pool and chock-full of AK-47s.
Things were so profitable that Hanson expanded internationally, but the bubble burst when a situation went wrong in Australia. Hanson was arrested in 2015, and over twenty members of his operation were also arrested on gambling charges and drug trafficking. For his part, Hanson pleaded guilty to racketeering and the conspiracy to distribute drugs. The sentence was 21 years in prison.
While there, Hanson wrote a book, published this year, entitled The California Kid: From USC Golden Boy to International Drug Kingpin — and there’s more to come. Actor Mark Wahlberg is developing a docuseries on Hanson’s life for Netflix.
