10.02.2015

October 1965: Gatorade


    Gatorade was the result of an offhand question posed in 1965 by assistant football coach Dewayne Douglas to Dr. J. Robert Cade, a professor renal medicine: "Why don't football players ever urinate during a game?" Cade and his team of researchers -- Drs. Alejando de Quesada, Jim Free and Dana Shires -- began investigating dehydration on the sports field -- a topic on which no reliable data existed.
     They soon designed and tested a drink that replaced the electrolytes lost through sweat during intense exercise. With the permission of the coaches, Cade's team was allowed to test the drink on the freshman football team, which unexpectedly beat the upperclassmen in a practice session (Friday, October 1). Ray Graves, Florida's head coach, immediately ordered up a large batch for his varsity squad, and on Saturday, October 2, the Gators upset the fifth-ranked LSU Tigers, 14-7.
     -- Summary from Cade Museum for Creativity + Invention, Gainesville, Florida
     -- Photo of Florida offensive coordinator Ed Kensler and quarterback Steve Spurrier, September 1966; in the early days players drank the mixture from milk cartons provided by the university's Department of Dairy Science. Image from University of Florida.


* "Gators Do It Again, 14-7" (Ocala Star-Banner, October 3, 1965): @
* "The Taste That's Gatorade" (Newspaper Enterprise Association, April 18, 1967): @
* "Gatorade Gives the Gators Their GO!" (All Florida magazine, April 23, 1967): @
* "Guzzling Gatorade" (Red Smith, September 7, 1967): @
* "The Bottle and the Babe" (Sports Illustrated, July 1, 1968): @
* Interview with Robert Cade (1996; University of Florida Digital Collections): @
* "Gatorade: The Idea That Launched an Industry" (Office of Research, University of Florida, 2003): @ 
* "First in Thirst: How Gatorade Turned the Science of Sweat Into a Cultural Phenomenon" (Darren Rovell, 2006): @
* University of Florida historical marker (dedicated 2007): @
* "Raise a Glass to the Father of Energy Drinks" (New York Times, 2007): @
* A Little Glucose, A Little Sodium, One Giant Legend" (The Post, Health Science Center, University of Florida, December 2007-January 2008, page 4): @
* "Dr. Cade Wins the Orange Bowl" (chapter from "It Happened in Florida: Remarkable Events That Shaped Florida History," 2009): @ 
* "Waterlogged: The Serious Problem of Overhydration in Endurance Sports" (Tim Noakes, 2012): @
* "Gator Go: The Story of a Failed Sports Drink" (Home: Living in the Heart of Florida magazine, October 2014): @ 
* "Lightning in a Bottle" (SportsBusiness Daily, 2015): @
* "Innovation Turns 50" (Office of Research, University of Florida): @
* "The Sweat Solution" (ESPN Films, 2015): @

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