Robert Cade

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Dr. James Robert Cade is a professor of medicine and physiology at the University of Florida who invented Gatorade. He is a member of The Delta Upsilon Fraternity.

Dr. Cade told of a football player, working as a student assistant, who asked him, "Doc, when I'm playing, why don't I have to wee-wee?" "I got to wondering why he didn't wee-wee," Dr Cade said in his high-pitched, Southern drawl, "and we developed Gatorade." Dr. Cade patented Gatorade and offered the patent to the University of Florida. The University turned down the opportunity. Dr. Cade offered it to them again and again was turned down. He then signed a deal with Stokley-Van Camp and began selling it.

When sales took off the University asked for the patent rights. Dr. Cade refused. He used some of the funds from his profits on Gatorade to set up scholarships and back local businesses. The University brought suit against him and locked up small businesses that were backed by Dr. Cade. Eventually an agreement was reached between Dr. Cade and the University.

The story of Cade, along with the rest of the Gatorade inventors, is chronicled in Darren Rovell's "First In Thirst: How Gatorade Turned The Science of Sweat Into A Cultural Phenomenon."

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