Coaches Indicted for Drugs

Three former University of South Carolina assistant football coaches were indicted by a South Carolina grand jury Wednesday for allegedly providing athletes with anabolic steroids, and a fourth was charged with importing the muscle-building drugs into the state.

James W. Washburn, Thomas E. Gadd and Thomas Kurucz were charged with conspiring to conduct a program of illegal steroid use, according to the indictment. The coaches allegedly encouraged and monitored the progress of the athletes using steroids, the indictment said.

Keith Kephart, a former strength coach, was charged with conspiring with other members of the athletic community to bring steroids into the state and dispense them without prescriptions, the grand jury charged.

The charges facing the coaches are misdemeanors.

The grand jury also charged a fifth man, John L. Carter of Bethesda, Md., with distributing steroids to four former South Carolina players including Tommy Chaikin, who played from 1983 to 1987. It was an article co-written by Chaikin in the Oct. 24 issue of Sports Illustrated that prompted the grand jury investigation.