Aztecs Used Steroids in 1981, Inquiry Told

Anabolic steroid use among football players at San Diego State was prevalent leading into the 1981 season, a former offensive lineman from Toronto said Wednesday before the Canadian government’s commission of inquiry into drug use by athletes.

Michael Ryan, called to testify about his association with sprinter Ben Johnson in 1983 and 1984, said he learned during a brief stay at San Diego State in the fall of 1981 about the use of steroids on the football team.

“The use was prevalent amongst offensive linemen,” he said. “Of the starters, I’d say almost every one of them (used steroids). Of the defensive linemen, I’d say two of the three (starters). The linebackers, a lot of them. The defensive backs as well. All of the defensive backs could bench press over 300 pounds.”

Doug Scovil, who was in his first year as San Diego State’s head coach in 1981, said he had no knowledge of steroid use at the school. “And if they were using steroids, they were in small doses,” he said. “We had a very small team.”

Scovil is now an assistant coach with the Philadelphia Eagles.

Gene Fisher, SDSU’s strength coach at the time, said that players probably were using steroids. “I would say that there were guys doing drugs as far as steroids were concerned, but probably about the same as at any (other school).”

Added Fisher, who owns a fitness-machine manufacturing business and runs a gym in San Diego, “If they were using steroids, they would have hid it from me because I tried to convince them to use vitamins. I used vitamins as leverage to get them off steroids.”

Ryan said he was advised by several linemen at SDSU during a visit to the campus the previous spring that he would have to start a summer steroid program in order to gain enough weight to compete for a position on the team the next fall. He said he began using the drugs upon his return to Toronto.

“I don’t even remember the guy (Ryan),” Scovil said. “Obviously I didn’t encourage any steroid use on this team.”

Added Fisher: “I know one thing for sure, the coaches never ever mentioned or brought up that they (players) do drugs.”

Ryan never played at San Diego State except during the fall workouts in 1981, leaving before the season began because of injuries.

He transferred to Panhandle College, an NAIA school in Oklahoma, where he said steroid use was less prevalent.

“They didn’t have the Division I mentality,” he said.

Asked by the commission’s associate counsel, Kirby Chown, if San Diego State football coaches encouraged the use of steroids, Ryan said: “They never said anything about it. They said you needed to gain weight, needed to put on some pounds. But that was about it.”

Staff Writer Brian Hewitt and John Geis in San Diego contributed to this story.