University of South Carolina Steroid Scandal - Reaction

Reaction

Shortly after the article ran in Sports Illustrated, an investigation by South Carolina's Fifth Circuit Solicitor James Anders was announced. Based on the results of this preliminary investigation, a joint state and federal probe was announced on November 11, 1988. On April 19, 1989 a federal grand jury indicted USC defensive coordinator Tom Gadd, defensive line coach James Washburn, tight ends coach Tom Kurucz, and strength coach Keith Kephart in connection with steroid distribution to players. A fifth person, John Landon Carter of Bethesda, Maryland, was also charged with dispensing anabolic steroids to four former Gamecock players: Tommy Chaikin, David Poinsett, Heyward Myers and George Hyder. The indictments charged that illegal acts occurred from 1984 through December 1987. Gadd, Washburn, and Kurucz were accused of conspiring to "provide money to certain players and athletic personnel of the university for the purchasing of steroids for use by athletic personnel." The indictments stated that the three monitored training programs to enhance steroid use and "would arrange to obtain sources for the purchase of unprescribed, misbranded steroids which were thereafter utilized by football players." Kephart was charged with conspiring with other members of the USC athletic community to obtain steroids illegally across state lines, and the indictments charged that he and unidentified others "would administer the steroids to each other to improve athletic performance and to enhance physical appearance." The United States Attorney, Vinton D. Lide, said he would not charge players or graduate assistants with crimes because he considered them to be victims.