Danny Ford and Clemson didn't experience a particularly lengthy period of relief after the conclusion of a three-year probation.
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As the calendar turned to 1985, the university community was reeling from December revelations that SLED was investigating the athletics department for the illegal dispensing of prescription medications.
The investigation followed the passing of All-America cross-country athlete Augustinius Jaspers, who was found dead in his dorm room in late October. Initially the death was attributed to a heart defect, but chemists at SLED found traces of painkillers in Jaspers' blood.
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Two track coaches, Stanley Narewski and Sam Colson, were suspended in December after university president Bill Atchley asked SLED to investigate "allegations of possible wrongdoing by two university employees." The two coaches later resigned and issued statements admitting they provided drugs to Clemson track athletes.
"The investigation involves the alleged dispensing of prescription medications to some student athletes in the track program, an idea which Clemson University will not permit to exist even at the level of gossip and innuendo," Atchley said in a news release.
Ford and his program were drawn into the controversy on Jan. 20, when a former student assistant strength coach named Jack Harkness told The Greenville News that he distributed steroids to five Clemson football players.
Harkness had left Clemson in mid-December and returned to his home in Ontario to avoid prosecution. Harkness told The Greenville News that Colson instructed him to make the drug available to football players. He said he gave small quantities of steroids to four Clemson football players in the spring and fall of 1984.
"I think that was the whole key to it," Harkness told the newspaper. "It was there if they wanted it."
