Piece from the York Daily Record traces the development, introduction, and history of steroid use at York Barbell Club, the pioneer in steroid use.
Anabolic steroids, introduced to America by Dr. John Ziegler formed the foundation for the domination by the York Barbell Club. Bob Hoffman the York Club, in York PA, the most famous muscle factory in the USA. Although Hoffman promoted his protein mix, and an isometric machine, anabolic steroids generated the key ingrediant to the lifters massive gains, gains that out-stripped every other weight-lifter in the country.
Ziegler. raised in rural PA, schooled at Univ of Maryland, and an avid weightlifter could not understand why the USSR lifters dominated the world in the 50s. A Soviet doctor finally revealed their secret:
As detailed in "Muscletown USA," Ziegler accompanied the U.S. team to the 1954 World Championships in Vienna, Austria, and watched the Soviet Union dominate the competition, with none of its lifters finishing below second.
A Soviet doctor kept asking what Ziegler was giving his boys. Finally, Ziegler asked the doctor what he was giving his boys that allowed them to lift so much. After a few drinks, the Soviet told him: testosterone.
Dr. Ziegler teamed with Ciba to synthesize and produce Dianabol, or D-bol. But soon the York lifters were suing a variety of anabolics including Winstrol, Deca-Duabolin (nandolone), Anabar and others. It wasn't illegal in the 60s:
In the 1960s, any doctor in America could write a prescription for steroids. It was the end of the decade before sporting bodies studied steroids, much less thought of banning them.
Within three years of March's initial dose of Dianabol, athletes in other sports reported using performance enhancers. Sixty-eight percent of Olympic athletes said they took them in 1972.
This new breed of weight-lifter, body-builder, and chemically-enhanced athlete felt they could determine what was right for their body. Cowboys:
A new group of steroid advocates, many with ties to southern California, claimed using the drugs was their personal choice, not a sporting official's.
If their bodies suffered as a result, so be it.
"It's sort of a cowboy chemistry in a way," Todd said. "As people got into it, it became a mark of valor, how much you could take."
Steroid spread through the NFL by way of the San Diego Charger's coach:
In that year, according to the 2005 Post-Gazette article, Alvin Roy, a York lifter, became the strength coach for the American Football League's San Diego Chargers.
Bowls of Dianabol were placed on the team's cafeteria tables and players were told to take one before each meal. Steroid use soon spread through both professional and college football.
As strength coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers from 1970 to 1980, Riecke worked with some of the best athletes of his day. In a recent telephone interview, he said he specifically told his players to stay away from steroids.
That may be true, but several members of those Steelers teams, including Jim Clack, Rick Donnalley, Mike Webster and Steve Courson all later admitted using, according to the Post-Gazette.
However, things turned darker - side effects of the powerful drugs appeared (*note this is controversial. Even today some experts argue that the side effects of steroids are greatly over-blown. France surrenders too* )
Liver damage, heart disease, violent aggression, depression, shrunken testicles, diminished sperm counts, hair loss and acne had all been linked to steroids. Before long, doctors theorized that steroids could greatly accelerate the growth of cancer.
Bodybuilding - a sport based on looks, not lifting ability - saw a spike in popularity in the late 1970s. Musclemen took mass doses of steroids and wound up with freakish physiques.
Then they started dying.
Liver failure. Heart failure. Suicide.
In 1983, two years before his death, Ziegler told Todd, "I wish to God now I'd never done it. I'd like to go back and take that whole chapter out of my life."
The rest is history, as they say. Ben Johnson, BALCO, Barry Bonds, Floyd Landis. Maybe it was bound to happen -- chemically cheating. Said Dr. Zeigler once:
"I honestly believe that if I'd told people back then that rat manure would make them strong, they'd have eaten rat manure," Ziegler told Todd in 1983. "What I failed to realize until it was too late was that most of the lifters had such obsessive personalities."
Really nice blog, you're cool,guy!
I've a bodybuilding blog:
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Byez
Posted by: ricca509 | 12/24/2006 at 17:50
Thanks!
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Posted by: ricca509 | 12/25/2006 at 12:04
I answered on your blog.
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Posted by: ricca509 | 12/28/2006 at 17:15
The comment made here about the San Diego Chagers ever handing out steriods, and Shawn Merriman specifically are untrue.
Nandrolone is not a complex compound, it is produced naturally in each of our bodies.
Eating beef and exercise cause positive results for Nandrolone.
I am amazed at how many take the time to slander, but fail to do their homework.
In the future it would be nice if you backed up your bold statements with fact, instead of fiction.
Posted by: Ted | 12/28/2006 at 17:44
You have been reading too much Wiki, or listening to feeble excuses put together by athletes.
While trace amounts of nandrolone may be metabolized in the body, and while there may be some contamination in food and supplements with 17 nor-steroids, by far the greatest cause of nandrolone in the urine is doping. Period.
Deca itself is not orally active. Thus a 17 nor-steroid would have to be ingested in HUGE amounts in my view to show up positive. This has been recently discussed in the literature: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=16799098&query_hl=4&itool=pubmed_docsum
(a good place to start).
They doped.
thanks
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