University of South Carolina steroid scandal  In October 1988, "Sports Illustrated" published a lengthy article on alleged steroid abuse in the football program at the University of South Carolina. The article, titled "The Nightmare of Steroids" and written by University of South Carolina football player Tommy Chaikin in collaboration with "Sports Illustrated"'s Rick Telander, alleged the widespread use of steroids in the football program at the school. Following the article, a federal grand jury indicted four University of South Carolina football coaches in connection with steroid distribution to players. Three of the coaches pleaded guilty in plea-bargain arrangements and the fourth was acquitted. The episode was listed among "some of college football's biggest scandals" by sports reporter Tom Weir of USA Today. "The Nightmare of Steroids" was featured in the October 24, 1988 issue of "Sports Illustrated". The article begins with Tommy Chaikin, a defensive lineman on the University of South Carolina football team, vividly narrating his steroid-induced experiences the day before the annual South Carolina-Clemson football game in 1987. In his own words, Chaikin describes himself sitting in his dorm room on the USC campus with a loaded handgun pressed to his chin. The story continues in stream of consciousness fashion to describe how he had arrived at the brink of suicide, and includes other significant factors in his three-year odyssey with steroids including peer pressure, the physical and mental effects of the drugs on himself, the coaches he alleged were involved, and his eventual rescue by his father. In the article, Chaikin alleges that half the USC football team was using steroids, however this claim was never substantiated. 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 Jim 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."