GAINESVILLE, Fla. — What started as a concoction to boost the sun-drained performance of University of Florida football players is celebrating its 35th year as the granddaddy of all sports drinks: Gatorade.

        It launched an industry that now markets dozens of competing brands, but Gatorade remains on top with 2000 worldwide sales of $2.1 billion and more than 80 percent of the sports drink market. It also has poured $76.4 million in royalties into the university's research coffers since the late 1960s.

Researchers Robert Cade (left) and Dana Shires work on a commercial for Gatorade recently in Gainesville, Fla. (Associated Press photo) | ZOOM |

        Gatorade and the school, filming television commercials at the Gainesville campus this week, are bringing back some of the players who were guinea pigs in the drink's testing and the researchers who developed it.

        “It sort of tasted like toilet bowl cleaner,” Dana Shires, one of the researchers, said of the first batch.

        The researchers started their work when a team led by Robert Cade was asked to come up with something to help the football players improve their second-half performance, which flagged in the Florida heat. They developed a drink to prevent dehydration by replacing carbohydrates and electrolytes lost through sweating.

        Then they tried it.

        “I guzzled it and I vomited it out,” Mr. Cade, a kidney specialist, said Wednesday.

        The researchers added artificial sweeter and lemon juice to improve the taste. In 1965, they tested their drink on 10 members of the freshman football team.

        “We were told to leave the varsity alone, because that was the university's bread and butter,” Mr. Cade said. Several freshmen with star potential were also banned from the testing.

        “I was one of the freshmen who were sacrificed,” said Chip Hinton, who is now executive director of the Florida Strawberry Growers Association. “I was a guinea pig.”

        After using the Gatorade in practice, Mr. Hinton and the other nine freshmen had to endure blood tests. Their pay was a steak dinner.

        The following year, the varsity began using it. The Gators soon became known as the “second-half” team for their ability to dominate opponents in the third and fourth quarters.

        In the 1967 Orange Bowl, the Gators defeated Georgia Tech 27-12.

        Coach Bobby Dodd told reporters his team lost because, “We didn't have Gatorade. ... That made the difference.”

        Mr. Dodd's statement was published in Sports Illustrated, and the popularity of the drink soared.

        Running back Larry Smith, who later played for the Los Angeles Rams and Washington Redskins, said the early versions of the drink were unpredictable.

        “Some days it tasted pretty good,” he said. “Some days it tasted terrible.”

        Stokely-Van Camp acquired the rights to produce and market Gatorade in the spring of 1967. Quaker Oats acquired Stokely-Van Camp in 1985, and merged with Pepsico Inc. last fall.

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