DR. JOHN BOSLEY ZIEGLER ... THE DOCTOR WHO BROUGHT STEROIDS TO AMERICA
Dr. John Ziegler, born in 1920, known as "Montana Jack", was a medical doctor who developed the anabolic steroid Dianabol, which was released in the USA in 1958 by Ciba Pharmaceuticals.
Ziegler pioneered its athletic use as an aid to muscle growth by bodybuilders, and he administered it to U.S. weightlifting champion Bill March, of the York Barbell Club in 1959, when Ziegler was acting the physician to the United States Weightlifting team.
Ziegler, who graduated from Gettysburg College in 1942, was a descent from three generations of doctors dating back to the American Civil War. His father, a practicing physician/scientist discovered the salt tablet.
Dr. "John" served as an officer in the United States Marine Corps in the Pacific during World War II, where he suffered extensive bullet wounds. His experience in surgery and convalescence led to his specialty in recuperative medicine at the Maryland Medical School. In 1954, he began specializing in the treatment of handicapped and seriously injured patients while he conducted part-time chemistry research at Ciba.
Dr. Ziegler became another of the enthusiastic weightlifters who trained at the York Barbell Club, which was the center of American fitness, thanks to Bob Hoffman, owner of the York Barbell Company. In 1954, he traveled to Vienna, with the American weightlifting team. There, he met a Russian physicist who stated the the Russian lifters were being given testosterone.
Returning to America, Ziegler tried weak doses of testosterone on himself, and other athletes training at York. All who participated gained body weight and strength, however, there were negative side-effects.
With research assistance from Ciba, Ziegler began to look for a synthetic substance that mimicked testosterone, without after-effects, and hit upon Dianabol. He administered the pill to the entire U. S. Olympic weightlifting team in Rome in 1960, but they still lost to the Soviets.
Ziegler gave up experimentation with athletes when he discovered that some who had taken 20 times the recommended dosage and had developed a liver condition. He was quoted in Science magazine in 1972, stating, "I lost interest in fooling with IQ's of that caliber. Now steroid abuse is about as widespread among these idiots as marijuana."
Later, Ziegler became even more outspoken against steroid abuse in sports, saying, "It's bad enough to have to deal with drug addicts, but now healthy athletes are putting themselves in the same category. It's a disgrace. Who plays sports for fun anymore?
Dr, John Bosley Ziegler suffered from heart disease, which he partially ascribed to his experimentation with steroids. He died from heart failure in 1983, at the age of 63.
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