‘Cocaine Quarterback’: Owen Hanson’s Journey from College Football Glory to the Cartel Underworld
Date:July 15, 2026
Time:7 to 8 p.m.
Cost:Free for Museum Members or with Museum Admission
Owen Hanson was a backup for a USC football team that won two national championships. But, unable to break into the starting lineup, Hanson took on a second life as a student drug dealer. Known as O-Dog, Hanson later expanded his criminal operation to include illegal bookmaking and partnering with one of the world’s most notorious drug cartels. At its peak, Hanson’s criminal network was earning him $1 million a day. But Hanson’s high-flying lifestyle crash-landed after his arrest, leading to nine years in prison. In 2025, he was released and started a company making frozen protein snacks that he first perfected in prison. Hanson will share his story of accountability, redemption, and rebuilding from the ground up.
Speakers
Owen Hanson
Owen Hanson was raised in a volatile home in Redondo Beach, California. He found his identity in sports and eventually walked on to Pete Carroll’s 2003–2004 National Championship teams at the University of Southern California. Surrounded by privilege and influence, Hanson wanted the acceptance and lifestyle he saw others enjoy. What began with selling steroids and BetOdog, a high-stakes sports betting endeavor, quickly escalated into large-scale trafficking, money laundering and ties to an international drug cartel. In his 20s, Hanson was living a life of luxury until millions in proceeds went missing and everything unraveled. With addiction, dangerous associates, and federal investigators closing in, his world collapsed. After his arrest, Hanson served nearly a decade of a 21-year sentence. While incarcerated, he reflected on his choices and found an unexpected path forward. A makeshift protein ice cream made from commissary ingredients sparked the idea for California Ice Protein, the company he founded after earning his MBA in prison. He is the author of “The California Kid” and the focus of Amazon Prime’s “Cocaine Quarterback” docuseries
Larry Henry, Moderator
Larry Henry is a veteran print and broadcast journalist who has served as legislative reporter at the Reno Gazette-Journal, political editor at the Las Vegas Sun and managing editor at KFSM-TV Channel 5, the CBS affiliate in Northwest Arkansas. He also has extensive experience reporting on the sports-betting and casino industries in the U.S. and Canada for online gaming news sites. In addition, Henry writes “The Mob In Pop Culture” column for The Mob Museum blog and has recently appeared on national and local news programs, discussing organized crime and law enforcement in Las Vegas and other cities, including New York, Chicago and New Orleans.
