Endnotes for “Lloyd Percival and Canada’s First Doping Scandal,” by Gary Mossman

The following notes identify sources and shed further light on issues in “Lloyd Percival and Canada’s First Doping Scandal,” by Gary Mossman, in the May and June, 2022 issue of Canadian Running (Vol. 15 Issue 4)

p. 40, right-hand column. He also recalls that “when he [Percival] was accused of giving amphetamines to his athletes, it did not surprise me.” Bruce Kidd,  “Lloyd Percival: Canada’s Sports Prophet,” Part 1, CBC Ideas, Jan. 18, 2022. Podcast at CBC.ca.

p. 40, right-hand column. Greek athletes competing in the ancient Olympic Games used stimulants; so did Roman gladiators, medieval knights and sporting cultures all over the world and throughout history. Charles E. Yesalis & Michael S. Bahnke, “History of Doping in Sport” (2002: Ohio, Penn. State Univ., 2002), 45.

p. 41, first paragraph. Growing up in Toronto, Lloyd Percival participated in many sports. A champion in tennis, boxing and cricket, he started coaching in 1932, when he was only 17. Gary Mossman, Lloyd Percival: Coach and Guru, Revised and Fully Referenced Edition (Wicklow ON.: Gary Mossman, 2022), 7-23. Most of the other material in this story can also be found in an expanded form in this book.

p. 41, second paragraph. In a 1953 article in Canadian Forum, future MP and Canadian sports mandarin Douglas Fisher wrote about Percival’s intriguing attempt to “integrate the gentlemanly traditions of British sport with the egalitarian and individualistic attitude of the Americans.” Douglas Fisher, “Head Coach Lloyd Percival,” The Canadian Forum, June 1953, 58-61.

p. 42, first paragraph. But Percival had witnessed too many occasions where they cared more about their boat trip to the Olympics than they did about the athletes. Mossman, 88.

p. 42, right column, second paragraph. Percival believed in the minimal but positive effect of glucose (sugar) tablets on athletic performance, but probably believed even more strongly in the effect of telling an athlete that this pill would make them perform better. This would be out of the question in today’s athletics, and supports Bruce Kidd’s contention that Percival was always looking for an edge to give his athletes, but it in no way justifies accusations regarding dangerous drugs.

p. 42, right column, second paragraph. When asked why sedatives would have been given to Don Mills TC athletes in the middle of an afternoon track meet, Crothers responded, “To take in their hotel room after the meet.” Bill Crothers, personal interview, Jan. 9, 2007

p. 42, right column, third pargraph. Nancy McCredie had no reason to suspect anything was amiss with affairs at the Don Mills TC until, she recalled in a later interview, Crothers suddenly started acting like a “big brother,” persuading her that Percival was lying about the glucose tablets. Nancy McCredie, telephone interview, Dec. 6, 2006. In contrast, Crothers recalled that he “never really knew Nancy.” Bill Crothers, personal interview, Jan. 9, 2007

p. 43, left column, third paragraph. After three hours, the committee informed the press that Percival had been found guilty of administering drugs to members of the Don Mills TC. Toronto Star, June 5, 2006, 67.

p. 43, left column, third paragraph. The Don Mills TC was suspended until they severed ties with their coach. One of the misconceptions that existed in 1966, and that persists in Kidd’s comments in the Ideas documentary, is that Percival was a “professional coach” who was paid for coaching athletes – something that, in Kidd’s mind, posed a threat to the highly valued amateur nature of Canadian athletics. In fact, Percival was never paid a cent by the Don Mills TC or by any amateur athlete who requested his services until the opening of The Fitness Institute in 1963. He was supported by his Sports College salary, public speaking engagements, royalties from The Hockey Handbook and, after 1963, membership fees paid to The Fitness Institute. 

p. 43, left column, fifth paragraph. And he produced scientific papers dating back to 1944 that he said “persuaded him that amphetamines would not benefit performance and would be dangerous.” George Finlayson, personal interview, Dec. 29, 2005 & Finlayson, “Notes From Transcripts”

p. 43, right column, line 5. The Toronto Star reported that “both admitted they had made false statements to the AAU.” Toronto Star, May 25, 1967, 13.

p. 43, right column, first paragraph. Roger Jackson, the 1964 Olympic gold medallist in rowing and future CEO of Own the Podium 2010, had written to the editor of the Toronto Telegram that Percival was “a moral person and a responsible citizen … who never prescribed or suggested that I take stimulants or drugs of any kind under athletic or non-athletic situation.” Toronto Telegram, clipping n.d., Lloyd Percival File, Library and Archives Canada.

p. 43, right column, second paragraph. On May 25, 1966, Cadsby read a statement on behalf of the defendants, who formally apologized to Percival and the Don Mills TC, informing the court that there was no basis for their allegations, that Percival was not doping his athletes, and recommending that he and the Don Mills TC be reinstated. From Toronto Star, May 25, 1967, 30 & The Globe and Mail, May 25, 1967, 12.

p. 43, right column, fourth paragraph. As Kidd recalls, a lawyer in the East York Club who was “involved in the AAU” told Kidd and his clubmates that “the settlement stops the whole thing, but does not absolve Percival.” Bruce Kidd, personal interview: Feb. 20, 2006.

p. 43, right column, fifth paragraph. Bruce Kidd refers to “the hurt that it caused my coach, to whom I owe everything.” Kidd, “Lloyd Percival: Canada’s Sports Prophet,” Part 1

p. 43, right column, fifth paragraph. The only person more responsible than Foot was Crothers–Kidd’s close friend and training partner. Kidd refers to himself “as both a participant in that period and a historian.” Ibid.