When you’ve been out for a run, a bike ride, a sports game, or a walk you might need something to drink. Water is effective, of course, but it’s actually not the best because while it replaces some of what your body loses in perspiration, it doesn’t have electrolytes. Robert Cade, a physician in Florida who was on the teaching staff of a hospital there, discovered in 1965 that college football players were losing a significant amount of water and electrolytes during a 3-hour game.
Cade, who was born September 26, 1927, started concocting various rehydration drinks on some members of the University of Florida football players. He started with freshmen, of course, because as many of the players noted at the time, his first attempts “sort of tasted like toilet bowl cleaner.” But Cade’s tests showed that the stuff worked. He consulted his wife about the vile taste, and she added some fruit juice and an artificial sweetener — and finally came up with something that tasted unusual, but palatable.
The University of Florida sports teams are nicknamed the Gators, so when Cade patented his formula he called it Gatorade. He offered the University the rights to it in exchange for their help producing and marketing it, but they declined. He financed it through a bank instead, and the stuff was a success — and then the University noticed, and sued Cade for a share of the profits. The legal struggle went on until 1972, when Cade and the University settled amicably, with the University reinvesting most of their profits in Cade’s department in the teaching hospital, and Cade creating a series of scholarships.
Gatorade is still around, of course, and it’s not just a sports drink now — it’s used in medical treatments of many conditions. Cade, who passed away at 80 in 2007, was particularly proud of the medical applications. PepsiCo owns Gatorade now, and the University of Florida still receives a share of the royalties — well over $300 million by now. They spent part of it on the Cade Museum, which you can visit when you’re in Gainesville, Florida to watch the Gators play.
