The Birth of a Brand
The Invention of Gatorade
Gatorade was the result of an offhand question posed in 1965 by former University of Florida linebacker Dwayne Douglas to Dr. J Robert Cade, a professor of renal medicine. "Why don't football players ever urinate during a game?" Cade and
his team of researchers - Drs. Alejandro 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. Ray Graves, Florida's head coach, immediately ordered up a large batch for his varsity squad, and in October of 1965, the Gators beat the LSU tigers in an upset. Soon other teams wanted to know what the Gators were drinking on the sidelines. In 1967, the Gators, after a miserable first half, dominated Georgia Tech in the third and fourth quarters to win 27-12 in its first-ever Orange Bowl victory. After the game, Georgia Tech coach Bobby Dodd told Gator coach Ray Graves, "We didn't have Gatorade. That made the difference."
Success on the gridiron led to national publicity and commercial potential. Without the help of others to commercialize it, however, Gatorade would have remained an interesting experiment. Dr. Kent Bradley initiated contact with the food company Stokely Van Camp and Dr. Gene Tubbs was instrumental in negotiating the deal that eventually led Stokely to acquire the rights to market Gatorade. Lab technician Loren Robey ran critical tests of sweat and blood samples to determine the drink's effect on athletes. University of Florida athletic trainers Jim Cunningham and Brady Greathouse realized the critical importance of dealing
directly with trainers and players to promote the effectiveness of the
drink. Today Gatorade, owned by Pepsi, dominates almost 80% of the sports beverage market with worldwide sales of over $4 billion a year. The phenomenal success of Gatorade was chronicled in the book First in Thirst by Darren Rovell.