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Doping in sport

For any of you, who like myself, take an interest in other sports I have been particularly captivated by the Tour de France in recent years. Mainly it has to be said, due to emergence of the likes of Cavendish and Wiggins.

So, on the back of this, I’ve also been following the recent USADA case against a certain Lance Armstrong and the allegations of performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) in relation to his seven tour wins. What has any of this got to do with Everton? Well, when reading into the history of doping in the sport of cycling I’ve read a number of references to PEDs into various other sports.

To my shock and surprise, when the reference came up to football,, our very own championship winning team of '62-'63 popped up. Which I’ve referenced below.

“Everton have long been one of the top clubs in the English association football league. The club were champions of the 1962–63 season. And it was done, according to a national newspaper investigation, with the help of Benzedrine. Word spread after Everton's win that the drug had been involved. The newspaper investigated, cited where the reporter believed it had come from, and quoted the goalkeeper, Albert Dunlop, as saying:
"I cannot remember how they first came to be offered to us. But they were distributed in the dressing rooms. We didn't have to take them but most of the players did. The tablets were mostly white but once or twice they were yellow. They were used through the 1961–62 season and the championship season which followed it.
Drug-taking had previously been virtually unnamed in the club. But once it had started we could have as many tablets as we liked. On match days they were handed out to most players as a matter of course. Soon some of the players could not do without the drug."
The club agreed that drugs had been used but that they "could not possibly have had any harmful effect." Dunlop, however, said he had become an addict."

Now, I wasn’t born until '75 but in all my years of supporting the Blues I’ve never come across this story before. I was wondering what some of our older supporters who can recall watching the Blues in our Championship-winning team remember of this incident. Were our players the only ones in the old First Division who tried this? Can anyone relay how the players, fans and the club in general were looked upon by others and did we receive any fines or disciplinary actions against the club in relation to this?
Paul Thomas, Beckenham Posted 24/08/2012 at 14:47:16

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Ray Robinson
942 Posted 24/08/2012 at 21:26:55

Paul, I'm 59 and remember the period when some Everton players were alleged to be involved in some sort of drug scandal. I seem to remember it as the "purple hearts" story although I was too young at the time to realise what it meant (and have never bothered to look it up since).

One thing that always puzzled me was the use of cortisone injections - a regular occurrence to get players back on the pitch in an era when substitutes were not allowed. How were such injections not considered to be "performance enhancing" when players couldn't have continued without them? How are pain-killing injections are allowed in the modern game?

It's a grey area in some instances, this doping game.

Alan Brown
945 Posted 24/08/2012 at 21:45:33

You can find mention of this on the Internet . It was apparently the trainers who handed out purple hearts - amphetamines to the players before games. As a kid I remember this blowing up and the club saying they were vitamins and supplements. I don't think it blew up into a major scandal like it would today.

Paul David
946 Posted 24/08/2012 at 21:48:26

I'm sure Wolves were involved in something similar in the 50's when they were winning titles.

Dick Fearon
960 Posted 24/08/2012 at 23:04:12

Even in those long gone days the popular press were not averse to using the word of liars to support so called campaigns. The ‘People’ was at the fore front of that kind of thing.
To his everlasting shame the liar who dragged Everton’s good name through the gutter was our retired goal keeper Albert Dunlop.
According to that scumbag the club regularly pumped him full of Purple Hearts.
To earn the ‘People’s 30 pieces of silver he ‘sexed’ up his evidence by saying that long after a game at Wolves had ended, team captain Brian Labone found him staggering around the pitch in a drug induced stupor.

I was among several thousand evertonians who made the trip to Molyneux and were situated behind Dunlops goal. A blanket of fog descended making it impossible to see beyond the penalty spot.
Myself and other fans were calling to Dunlop, ‘What the fucks happing Albert’. He was anxiously patrolling his six yard box fearful that a ball might suddenly come flying out of the fog.
Everything went quiet then Labone appeared out of the gloom and spoke to Dunlop who then came around to us to inform us that the Ref had abandoned the game.
There was no staggering or stupor and nor did it suit Dunlop or the 'Peoples' campaign to mention the fog or the abandonment of the game.
I wonder if anyone else who was at that game is still aligning to the branch.

Dick Fearon
962 Posted 24/08/2012 at 23:13:44

My last sentence should have read, clinging to the branch.

When asked his views on the matter Alan Hardaker, then secretary to the FA said, 'I would not hang a dog on the word of an ex footballer.' I say, Amen to that.

James Flynn
988 Posted 25/08/2012 at 02:07:21

Gave baseball players the same stuff. Just a big, open jar of amphetamine. Called them "greenies". The practice has only been banned fairly recently.

On Armstrong being stripped, that sport is so rife with rulebreaking, what victor can be claimed clean in its entire history?

Paul Johnson
001 Posted 25/08/2012 at 05:54:42

Paul, I was born in 65 so not my time, however Colin Harvey mentions it in a chapter of his book "Everton Secrets". The book itself is a great read.

Brian Keoghan
063 Posted 25/08/2012 at 12:08:51

I remember the story in the "People"which implied not only drug taking but also bribery and as mentioned earlier the"stoolie" was Albert Dunlop who was our goalie before Gordon West.West was injured duriing the run in of our 1962/3 championship season and Dunlop played in his place;his last game for the club I believe was the championship clincher against Fulham.After that I recall a failed business venture for Dunlop followed by financial problems and illness.The feeling at the time was that Dunlop had sold his "story"purely for financial gain and was treated as no more than "tittle - tattle".I think the rest of Albert's days were unhappy and I believe he sadly took his own life.

Derek Thomas
066 Posted 25/08/2012 at 12:55:06

The People not long after and maybe leading on from ( I think ) Did for Tony Kay as well. Tabloids *spits* didn't just spring fully formed with the Sun *spits*

Tom Bowers
111 Posted 25/08/2012 at 17:14:42

Do you really think that in an age when drug testing was generally unheard of that Everton would have been the only club to have had access to the aforementioned drugs? No way. If Everton used them then all clubs did.

Personally I think Dunlop was making up stories to make money and gutter press tabloid journalists were there then as they are now.

Dennis Stevens
110 Posted 02/09/2012 at 01:33:07

Didn't Wolves give the players some kind of monkey gland injection in the 1930's ?

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