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Articles
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Scandal at the UW: a never-ending story By: Malamute, 12 December 2003
Aye, if but one could gather up the scurvy scum of the local media, all, and ship them off to Lincoln, where landlocked they would be. How long would they be lasting in that berg, for the pulling off of their stunts, by the searching of the records of a court or by a visiting of two salty lads caught in an imbroglio at an eating establishment? I jokingly posted that message on a football message board this week. Er, ah, a joke? That posting refers back to the Los Angeles Times’ 1992 investigation of the UW football program. The investigation was triggered by an interview with two former Husky players who were kicked off Don James’ team and who had later sued the university. The two investigative reporters remembered that the players had been beaten up at a Red Onion restaurant in Orange County and contacted them for interviews. Then, Dr. Steven Bramwell, an orthopedic physician, and former halfback the UW, was the subject of one of the Times’ stories. The Times reporters took statements from a deposition that Bramwell made regarding a lawsuit by a former player who charged that he was negligently treated for an injury. The Times stated that UW football players were selling prescription drugs, according to the deposition. The story stated that a “team physician says that medication given to the athletes for injuries or illness was used for profit.” The following paragraph was included in the Los Angeles Times’ seminal article (“Washington: a program gone awry?”) documenting potential NCAA violations committed by the UW. “Washington players also have sold prescription drugs supplied by the university's trainers or medical staff, according to the sworn testimony of Steven Bramwell, the Huskies' team physician.” (2) A companion article published in the Times, elaborated on Bramwell’s testimony, using a copy of a deposition taken for a personal injury suit filed in 1990 against the physician and Washington trainers and coaches by Vince Weathersby, a former Husky running back. During the 1991
deposition, Bramwell said Weathersby was given 12 tablets of Tylenol with
codeine to ease pain caused by the injury. This Q & A session, as taken from a deposition, is typical of the way the media have treated the UW sports program for the past 11 years. On the surface, the story appears damaging; upon further investigation, the muck vanishes like grease does to Bon Ami. In an attempt to point out the severity of the situation, the LA Times included an interview with an NCAA official in its article. The Times quoted an NCAA official as saying that such activities could be a violation of the NCAA “extra benefit” rule. That rule prevents representatives of the school’s athletic interests (coaches, players) from receiving benefits not available to the student body at large. The same official said it could be a violation of the rule on amateurism, which bars players from using their status as athletes to accept any form of compensation. In the same article, Bramwell went on to say that he had only heard rumors of such activities. "I wouldn't accuse any of the players of doing that other than it's been rumored to happen with athletes and we know it has happened with private patients," Bramwell told the Times. "We certainly try to control the amount going (out), so even if somebody was (selling the drugs), it would be at a very minimal level from us,” he added. Later, Bramwell said he wasn’t able to clarify his deposition because the attorney moved on to another line of questioning. “The attorney was pressing me,” he said. “It could have been incorrect statement on my part, but I told the Los Angeles Times reporter that I had no evidence of any athletes selling drugs. I knew of private patients selling prescription drugs, but not athletes.” (4) Bramwell told a local television station the day the LA Times' story was published that the story was not correct and did not accurately report or reflect the truth. The final investigative report, detailing the Pacific-10 conference’s investigation of the UW in 1993, did not list any violations resulting from the sale of prescription drugs, nor were any alleged incidents of their sale ever mentioned by the report. A final report from the NCAA documented no such activities. Now, eleven years later, Bramwell is back in the news again. As we said, the media’s scrutiny of the Washington athletics program is never ending. Instead of a deposition, this time the media have unearthed a report written by state pharmacy investigators in 1985. Apparently, that report has been available to them for 18 years under the state’s open record laws. Ironically, this latest news story, although it was probably never so intended, implies rather strongly that embattled athletics director Barbara Hedges has done much under her watch to remedy the situation involving prescription drugs at the UW since her tenure began in 1991. In a Seattle Times article published this week, details of a confidential report from state pharmacy investigators in 1985 were revealed. The report found that UW team doctors and trainers had violated “federal and state laws in the loose ways they distributed prescription and drugs and controlled substances in the early 1980s.” The Seattle Times article stated that state investigators, “found dispensing of drugs without doctors ever seeing patients, uncontrolled use of sample drugs, lack of DEA licenses, and the disappearance of hundreds of narcotic pills — an amalgam of abuse similar to the alleged actions by the softball team doctor now under investigation by state and federal authorities.” (1) According to the Times, the 1985 report found Dr. Steven Bramwell, orthopedic surgeon, to be in violation of drugs laws. However, the report credited him with “the best intentions.” Bramwell directed medical care for many UW athletes from 1977 to 1999. A couple of the findings detailed similar procedures practiced by former softball team doctor, William Scheyer. Like Scheyer, Bramwell was ineligible to prescribe controlled substances because he failed to renew his federal Drug Enforcement Administration registration, apparently from 1976 to 1985. Also, he bought drugs with his own money and donated the drugs and his time to university athletes. Unlike Bramwell, however, Scheyer, allegedly failed to account for thousands of doses of narcotic pain pills, muscle relaxants and steroid gels, and he is under investigation at the current time. Scheyer says he is innocent of the charges. According to the Times, “newly released records show training room prescription abuses were rampant until they were cleaned up with help from the College of Pharmacy in 1985. Inspections in 1992 and 1999 found limited, ongoing problems.” The director of the Board of Pharmacy wrote athletics director Barbara Hedges and Bramwell in March 1992, praising them for improvements; they noted continued problems with records, dispensing and DEA registration. An inspection in 1994 found the UW program in compliance, as did another for the most part in 1999. In May of that year, investigators found drugs stored in an unlocked cabinet, which was deemed “unacceptable.” Trainers were dispensing starter doses of drugs; however, laws that had been modified allowed that to occur under certain circumstances. (1). So, apparently Scheyer slipped under the crack. It’s not hard to see why. Three years ago, the UW audited prescriptions filled at the UW pharmacy because of the amount of drugs available to athletes. Nothing in a damaging way turned up. However, Scheyer was allegedly using secret accounts at Swedish hospital and at a Kirkland pharmacy to fill his prescriptions which he paid for himself. Sources: (1) Wilson, Duff, “UW cited for drug laxity as far back as early '80s,” The Seattle Times, December 10, 2003. (2) Robbins, Danny;
Almond, Elliott, “Washington: A Program Gone Awry?” The Los Angeles Times,
December 9, 1992. (4) Farmer, Sam, "Bitter Roses, An Inside Look at the Washington Huskies’ Turbulent Year," Sagamore Publishing, 1993. Richard Linde (a.k.a., Malamute) can be reached at malamute@4malamute.com |
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The media’s scrutiny of the University of Washington
football program is never ending. No other institution in college football has
been watched as closely by the fourth estate for so long a period of time. And
no other institution in college football would bear up as well as the Huskies
have under such an examination.