SDSU Track Team Suspended Indefinitely : In Face of Steroid-Use Charges, School Plans Drug-Testing Program

San Diego State University’s competition in men and women’s track and field has been suspended indefinitely, SDSU Athletic Director Fred Miller announced Monday.

Miller, in a prepared statement, said, “We will expedite a medical screening examination, including substance abuse testing, in men and women’s track and field. Any member of these track and field teams wishing to compete will be tested.”

Miller said the Aztec track teams will definitely not compete here Saturday in meets involving five other schools. The athletic director said that he hopes the drug-testing program will get underway as soon as Wednesday, and said, “Our goal is to get them back on the track in two weeks.” He added that it would cost the school up to $20,000 to implement the program.

Miller’s announcement Monday came on the heels of allegations of steroid use at San Diego State. Last week, Miller called in two SDSU athletes, Scott Hoth and Tom Silva, and ordered them to take tests for possible steroid use. They balked at Miller’s request and in turn said that former Aztec assistant coach Kent Pagel had provided them with steroids in the past. Pagel, who was reassigned elsewhere in the athletic department by Miller, denied those accusations. Since the original allegations, several former SDSU track athletes have stepped forward to announce their opinions of steroid use or non-use at the school.

“This series of events has brought us to this situation,” said Miller at a campus press conference attended by many of SDSU’s track athletes. “With the support of the school’s President (Thomas B. Day), we will move ahead aggressively with this program. We see it as being very positive.”

Dixon Farmer, the men’s coach, said: “We’re behind Fred Miller 100%. I am shocked at the series of events that have led us to this situation.”

Jim Cerveny, the women’s coach, added: “We’re all for it. I talked to the ladies on the team and they all said, ‘We’ll line up at the door.’ This testing is good for our team. It will prove our team is clean.”

The National Collegiate Athletic Assn. does not have a drug-testing policy, though its bylaws state that athletes taking drugs without prescriptions are not allowed to compete in its championships. NCAA officials have encouraged individual schools to form drug-testing policies. There is nothing in the NCAA rules, however, that would force an athlete to comply with Miller’s demands.

“Any time you take a position based on an adequate value system, you’re in an extremely defensable position,” Miller said. “If you get the legal problems, you get them. We feel that this relates to a moral position, and we feel we’re on very safe ground if there are any problems.”

Alden J. Fulkerson, an attorney representing Hoth and Silva, said he is unsure whether or not Miller’s drug-testing policy would be termed lawful but did say this is a good step to try and clear up the possible steroid-use problem.

“I wouldn’t want to predict what would happen if someone did challenge (Miller’s) policy because this is the first go-around,” Fulkerson said. “The key words were ‘moral position.’ We’re dealing with a change in moral position now. Previously, it seemed like everybody had a ‘Yeah, drugs are bad but it’s still business as usual’ attitude. Personally, I think the university has taken a very positive position.”

Neither of Fulkerson’s clients was available for comment Monday. Fulkerson said he wasn’t sure whether or not the two would commit to drug-testing now that Miller has ordered the entire team to do so.

Hoth, who admitted to using steroids last year but said he hasn’t used them since, was at his home in El Toro Monday for spring break.

“We have no bias at all,” Miller said. “If he takes a drug test now and it comes up negative, he will have no problem rejoining the team.”

Silva said he’s never used steroids.

Miller also said that along with the testing of SDSU track athletes, the school would continue to move forward in an effort to ratify a set drug-testing policy at the university for all sports. “I want to be in a position where we have a set testing procedure in place by this summer,” Miller said. “The minimum we will have is random drug testing, but you can be sure we will have random testing for steroid use.”

Miller said the new policy would be implemented prior to the 1986 Aztec football season.

“It would have to be random because of the prohibitive cost,” Miller said. “But if someone wants to roll the dice, they ought to know we will apply it (the drug policy).”

Miller, meanwhile, called the testing procedure “extremely reliable” and added he would rather eliminate the problems rather than catch people breaking the rules.

Along with the investigation of track athletes at SDSU, Miller said he would continue an internal investigations to allegations made last week by Hoth and Silva and former track athletes who claimed widespread use of steroids at SDSU.

“Since it involves personal matters, it is the school’s position to handle these things internally,” Miller said.

Pagel, reached at his home Monday night, had this to say about Miller’s announcement: “I’m pretty pleased with it. It’s good stuff. We’ve all supported the idea of testing all along. It’s just unfortunate that the university is going to have to spend this kind of money to prove a point that doesn’t need to be proved.”

Pagel, who was charged with purchasing steroids in 1983 in a statement made by Cookson last Friday, said he would also agree to a drug test.

“I’ll take one for sure,” he said.