From How the Cadillac Got Its Fins by Jack Mingo:

Gatorade Sweats It Out in the Market

Is drinking Gatorade while exercising any more effective than water? Several studies have suggested that the answer is no, unless you're involved in an extraordinary level of exertion, like running an ultramarathon. Regardless, Gatorade and the research that spawned it has done one undeniable service for the sports community: It broke down the dangerously misguided prohibition by old-style high school and college coaches against drinking liquids while exercising.

An idle question from a coach brought James Robert Cade, a kidney researcher at the University of Florida, into sports research in 1965. How come, asked Gator assistant coach DeWayne Douglas, football players never have to pee during games? Since they lose as much as fifteen pounds during a game, where does all that weight go? And why do his players seem to "run out of gas" during the fourth quarter?

Cade did some research and found that players playing hard in the Florida sun sweated at an amazing rate, losing, not just water, but also sodium and potassium. As a result, the players' kidneys shut down to conserve liquid.

Cade analyzed sweat and came up with a liquid of similar composition. He added a lime flavoring to make it more palatable, but kept the flavor as light as possible, figuring it would inspire players to drink more of it. He mixed up a huge quantity of the stuff and presented it to the coach.

When the University of Florida Gators started drinking it, they discovered that they didn't sag midway during the game and that the heat didn't leave them as exhausted as before.

They even got used to the taste after a while. One player had complained that the concoction "tastes like pee." Cade, ever the scientist, went back to his lab, took a sample of his own urine, chilled it… and reported back to the player that "urine doesn't taste a bit like Gatorade."

The big jug of Gatorade on the sidelines developed a mystique among the Gators and eventually among the teams they played. In 1967, when Florida beat Georgia Tech 27-12 in the Orange Bowl, Tech's coach claimed they lost because "we didn't have Gatorade."

That year, Cade licensed the rights to Stokely-Van Camp, which began paying him a royalty on every drink sold. Jugs of Gatorade began appearing on the sidelines at professional football games, and coaches all over the country began changing a deeply held but completely erroneous belief. For decades, most had denied their athletes liquid during games and practices, thinking it would cause debilitating muscle cramps and worse. Athletes were allowed only damp towels to suck on when they got thirsty. As a result, about fifty student athletes died every year from heat stroke. Cade's research-and that highly visible jug on the sidelines of pro football games-convinced most coaches to change their ways. Today, heat stroke deaths have dropped to nearly zero.

When royalty money began pouring in, the University of Florida sued Cade, saying that it should own the rights to Gatorade because he was an employee at the time of his development. Cade countered that he had worked on Gatorade on his own time. In fact, early in the process, he had asked his department at the university to help him develop and patent the liquid, which would have given the University of Florida full rights to the drink. The department had turned him down.

The final court settlement gave Cade and his research team 80 percent of the profits and the rest-about $2 million a year-to the university.