History of Gatorade

History of Gatorade

In 1965 Dwayne Douglas, assistant coach for the University of Florida, was baffled as to why his players were so exhausted and energy depleted during third quarter of the games. Their weight loss was extreme from sweating, yet they had no desire to urinate. He met with researchers at the College of Medicine and told them how he himself had lost as much as 18 pounds during one game. Robert Cade, a kidney disease specialist, and his team discovered that players were eliminating all of their fluids to the point there was nothing left to urinate. “The researchers speculated that the electrolytes, primarily sodium and potassium, the players were losing in their sweat were upsetting the body’s delicate chemical balance.” (Kays, Phillips-Han, 2003)

Ray Graves agreed to allow 10 freshman players to be used in the study. “The results were eye-opening. The players’ electrolytes were completely out of balance, their blood sugar was low and their total blood volume was low. The impact on the body of this upheaval in chemistry was profound.” (Kays, Phillips-Han, 2003). The team began collecting samples of all kinds from the players.

The researchers decided to concoct a mixture of water, salt, some sugar, but not too much, and lemon juice. They saw immediate results. By the 1966 season the mixture had earned the name Gatorade and a place in the Florida Gator’s routine. The team had an 8-2 season, and credits the success to Gatorade. In 1967 Cade and the other researchers sold the rights to Stokely-Van Camp. In 1973 lawsuits were settled that granted the university and the inventors, royalties. Today the university collects about 12 million a year in royalties.

In 1983 Stokely-Van Camp was sold to Quaker Oats Co. for $220 million. Michael Jordan became the spokesperson for the brand and ultimately helped Gatorade secure 80% of the sports drink market. Between 1984 and 1993 Quaker Oats expanded the market to Asia, South America, Europe...