James Robert Cade (September 26, 1927 – November 27, 2007) was an American physician, university professor, research scientist and inventor. Cade, a native of

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, earned his bachelor and medical degrees at the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 students as of fall 2 ...

, and became a professor of medicine and

nephrology Nephrology is a specialty for both adult internal medicine and pediatric medicine that concerns the study of the kidneys, specifically normal kidney function (renal physiology) and kidney disease (renal pathophysiology), the preservation of kid ...

at the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...

. Although Cade engaged in many areas of medical research, he is most widely remembered as the leader of the research team that created the sports drink

Gatorade Gatorade is an American brand of sports-themed beverage and food products, built around its signature line of sports drinks. The drink is owned and manufactured by PepsiCo and is distributed in over 80 countries. The beverage was develope ...

.Arline Phillips-Han,
Dr. Robert Cade . . . saga of the world's best-selling sports drink and the creative physician scientist behind it
" ''Health Science Center News'', University of Florida (February 24, 2003). Retrieved December 10, 2014. Gatorade would have significant medical applications for treating dehydration in patients, and has generated over $150 million in royalties for the university. In his later years, Cade became a prominent philanthropist, donating significant sums to charities affiliated with the Lutheran Church, creating scholarships and donating freely to the University of Florida and other colleges and universities, and endowing his own charitable foundations.

Early life and education

Robert Cade was born in

San Antonio, Texas San Antonio ( ; Spanish for "Anthony of Padua, Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the List of Texas metropolitan areas, third-largest metropolitan area in Texa ...

, on September 26, 1927.Douglas Martin,
J. Robert Cade, the Inventor of Gatorade, Dies at 80
" ''The New York Times'' (November 28, 2007). Retrieved December 10, 2014. He was a fourth-generation Texan.Samuel Proctor
Dr. James Robert Cade Interview
Samuel Proctor Oral History Project, George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, page 4 (1996). Retrieved December 10, 2014. Cade took an early interest in athletics and ran the mile in four minutes, twenty seconds at Brackenridge High School, a very respectable time for a high school athlete in the early 1940s. He graduated from

Brackenridge High School G.W. Brackenridge High School is a public high school located in central San Antonio, Texas, and classified as a 5A school by the University Interscholastic League (UIL). This school is one of 12 high school schools in the San Antonio Independen ...

in May 1945 and joined the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest displacement, at 4.5 million tons in 2021. It has the world's largest aircraft ...

. He served for three years and was stationed at Naval Medical Research Unit Four in Dublin, Georgia (1 year), the destroyer USS ''Gherardi'' ( years) and the cruiser USS ''Rochester''. He completed his service in September 1948 with the rank of pharmacist's mate third class. After being discharged from the navy, he enrolled in the

.Associated Press,
Inventor of Gatorade dies at 80
" ''USA Today'' (November 27, 2007). Retrieved December 10, 2014. He completed four years of undergraduate coursework in two calendar years, and graduated with his bachelor's degree in 1950. He was also a member of the

Delta Upsilon Delta Upsilon (), commonly known as DU, is a collegiate men's fraternity founded on November 4, 1834, at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It is the sixth-oldest, all-male, college Greek-letter organization founded in North America ...

fraternity while at the University of Texas. In 1953, he married Mary Strasburger, a nurse from Dallas, Texas, whom he had met while he was in medical school.The Cade Museum for Innovation and Invention, The History
A Man, A Team, An Idea + A Drink: Dr. J. Robert Cade
Retrieved December 10, 2014 After graduating with his

doctor of medicine A Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated MD, from the Latin language, Latin ) is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the ''MD'' denotes a professional degree of ph ...

degree from the

University of Texas Southwestern Medical School The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UT Southwestern or UTSW) is a Public university, public Academic health science centre, academic health science center in Dallas, Texas. With approximately 23,000 employees, more than 3,000 ...

in Dallas in 1954, Cade completed his

internship An internship is a period of work experience offered by an organization for a limited period of time. Once confined to medical graduates, internship is used to practice for a wide range of placements in businesses, non-profit organizations and g ...

at the Saint Louis City Hospital in Saint Louis, Missouri and did his

residency Residency may refer to: * Artist-in-residence, a program to sponsor the residence and work of visual artists, writers, musicians, etc. * Concert residency, a series of concerts performed at one venue * Domicile (law), the act of establishing or m ...

Parkland Memorial Hospital Parkland Memorial Hospital is a public hospital located in Dallas, Texas. It is the main hospital of the Parkland Health & Hospital System and serves as Dallas County's public hospital. It is located within the Southwestern Medical Distri ...

in Dallas. He also served fellowships at his alma mater, Southwestern Medical School, and

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

Medical College A medical association or medical college is a trade association that brings together practitioners of a particular geographical area (a country, region, province). In common-law countries, they are often grouped by medical specialties ( cardiolog ...

in New York City. In 1961, Cade joined the faculty of the

University of Florida College of Medicine The University of Florida College of Medicine is the medical school of the University of Florida. It is part of the J. Hillis Miller Health Science Center, with facilities in Gainesville and Jacksonville, Florida. The school grants Doctor ...

in Gainesville, Florida, as an assistant professor of internal medicine in its

renal In humans, the kidneys are two reddish-brown bean-shaped blood-filtering organs that are a multilobar, multipapillary form of mammalian kidneys, usually without signs of external lobulation. They are located on the left and right in the retrop ...

division.

Invention of Gatorade

In 1965, Cade was approached by

Dewayne Douglas Edward Dewayne Douglas (December 22, 1931 – April 11, 2000) was an American football offensive tackle who played one season with the New York Giants of the National Football League (NFL). He was drafted by the New York Giants in the fourth rou ...

, an assistant coach for the

Florida Gators football The Florida Gators football program represents the University of Florida (UF) in American football, American college football. Florida competes in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the ...

team, about the extreme

dehydration In physiology, dehydration is a lack of total body water that disrupts metabolic processes. It occurs when free water loss exceeds intake, often resulting from excessive sweating, health conditions, or inadequate consumption of water. Mild deh ...

faced by Gator football players practicing in the high temperatures and humidity of the

Deep South The Deep South or the Lower South is a cultural and geographic subregion of the Southern United States. The term is used to describe the states which were most economically dependent on Plantation complexes in the Southern United States, plant ...

in late summer and early fall.Michael McLeod,
Gator-made
" ''Orlando Sentinel'' (August 14, 2005). Retrieved February 17, 2010. Douglas questioned Cade why his football players did not urinate during practice and games. Cade learned from anecdotal evidence that football players were losing water through perspiration and failing to replace fluid during practice and games. Cade's research team discovered that football players were losing up to 18 pounds (8.2 kilograms) during the three hours of a

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

game, and that ninety to ninety-five percent of that loss was water. A player's plasma volume could decrease as much as seven percent and blood volume by five percent, and sodium and chloride were excreted in the sweat. During 1965 and 1966, Cade, together with his team of research doctors

Dana Shires Dana L. Shires, Jr. (born November 22, 1932) is an American physician, research scientist, and inventor. He was a member of the research team that did the work leading to the invention of Gatorade. He is the co-founder and former CEO of LifeL ...

, James Free, and Alejandro M. de Quesada, conducted a series of trial-and-error experiments with his

glucose Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecular formula , which is often abbreviated as Glc. It is overall the most abundant monosaccharide, a subcategory of carbohydrates. It is mainly made by plants and most algae d ...

-and-

electrolyte An electrolyte is a substance that conducts electricity through the movement of ions, but not through the movement of electrons. This includes most soluble Salt (chemistry), salts, acids, and Base (chemistry), bases, dissolved in a polar solven ...

s rehydration drink on members of the Gators football team of coach

Ray Graves Samuel Ray Graves (December 31, 1918 – April 10, 2015) was an American professional football player and college football coach. He was a native of Tennessee and a graduate of the University of Tennessee, where he was the starting center and ...

, first with members of the freshman squad, and after initially promising results, with starting members of the varsity team. "It didn't taste like Gatorade," Cade said in a 1988 interview with ''

Florida Trend ''Florida Trend'' is a media company delivering business news and information across print and digital platforms. Florida Trend reports on all industry sectors, including health care, education, research and technology, finance, law, transpor ...

'' magazine. In fact, according to Cade, when Gators lineman Larry Gagner first tried it, he spat it out and strongly suggested that the original experimental formula tasted more like bodily waste. Dana Shires remembered that "it sort of tasted like toilet bowl cleaner."Robert Cade: Scientist who invented Gatorade, the world's first and biggest-selling sports drink
" ''The Times'' (November 29, 2007). Retrieved December 14, 2014. To make it more palatable, at the suggestion of Cade's wife, the researchers added lemon juice and

cyclamate Cyclamate is an artificial sweetener. It is 30–50 times sweeter than sucrose (table sugar), making it the least potent of the commercially used artificial sweeteners. It is often used with other artificial sweeteners, especially saccharin; the ...

Richard Burnett,
Gatorade Inventor: My Success Based On Sweat And Luck
" ''Orlando Sentinel'' (April 16, 1994). Retrieved February 16, 2010. Other sweeteners were substituted in 1970, when the federal

Food and Drug Administration The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a List of United States federal agencies, federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is respo ...

(FDA) banned cyclamate as a potential

carcinogen A carcinogen () is any agent that promotes the development of cancer. Carcinogens can include synthetic chemicals, naturally occurring substances, physical agents such as ionizing and non-ionizing radiation, and biologic agents such as viruse ...

. to the original formula of water, salt,

sodium citrate Sodium citrate may refer to any of the sodium salts of citric acid (though most commonly the third): * Monosodium citrate * Disodium citrate * Trisodium citrate The three forms of salt are collectively known by the E number E331. Applications ...

fructose Fructose (), or fruit sugar, is a Ketose, ketonic monosaccharide, simple sugar found in many plants, where it is often bonded to glucose to form the disaccharide sucrose. It is one of the three dietary monosaccharides, along with glucose and gal ...

and

monopotassium phosphate Monopotassium phosphate (MKP) (also, potassium dihydrogen phosphate, KDP, or monobasic potassium phosphate) is the inorganic compound with the formula KH2PO4. Together with dipotassium phosphate (K2HPO4.(H2O)x) it is often used as a fertilizer, ...

. Cade appeared in "The Legend of Gatorade" television commercials narrated by long-time college football announcer

Keith Jackson Keith Max Jackson (October 18, 1928 – January 12, 2018) was an American sports commentator, journalist, author, and radio personality, known for his career with ABC Sports (1966–2006). While he covered a variety of sports over his caree ...

in 2005, during which Cade declared, "Naturally, we called our stuff ''Gator''ade." However, the rehydration drink was first known as "Cade's Ade" and "Cade's Cola" to the Florida Gators football team, and only later became known as "Gatorade." The drink received its first real test in the Gators' 1965 game against the

LSU Tigers football The LSU Tigers football program, also known as the Fighting Tigers, represents Louisiana State University in college football. The LSU Tigers and Lady Tigers, Tigers compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athle ...

team; the Tigers faded in the heat of the second half and the Gators did not. Coach Graves was convinced, and asked Cade to produce enough of his potion for all Gator games. Gatorade achieved national prominence as a result of the Gators' first

Orange Bowl The Orange Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in the Miami metropolitan area. Played annually since 1935 Orange Bowl, January 1, 1935, it is tied with the Sugar Bowl and the Sun Bowl as the second-oldest bowl games in ...

title over the

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets is the name used for all of the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), located in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The teams have also been nicknamed the ...

in January 1967. The Gators reinforced their reputation as a "second-half team" and came from behind to defeat the Yellow Jackets 27–10. Afterward, Georgia Tech head coach

Bobby Dodd Robert Lee Dodd (November 11, 1908 – June 21, 1988) was an American college football player and coach, college baseball coach, and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at Georgia Tech from 1945 to 1966, compili ...

told reporters: "We didn't have Gatorade; that made the difference." Cade

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

ed the formula and offered all the rights to the drink to the University of Florida in exchange for the university's backing of the production and marketing of the drink, but the university turned down his proposal.Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Inventor of the Week Archive
Inventor of the Week: Robert Cade
Retrieved December 10, 2014. He initially obtained bank financing and began to produce "Gatorade" through his own business, but later entered into a contract with Stokely-Van Camp, Inc. to produce and sell the drink. When sales

royalties A royalty payment is a payment made by one party to another that owns a particular asset, for the right to ongoing use of that asset. Royalties are typically agreed upon as a percentage of gross or net revenues derived from the use of an asset or ...

reached $200,000, the university took notice.Dave Curtis,

" ''Orlando Sentinel'' (April 14, 2007). Retrieved July 12, 2022. The

Florida Board of Regents The Florida Board of Regents was from 1965 to 2001 the governing body for the State University System of Florida, which includes all public universities in the state of Florida, United States. It was created to replace a predecessor body called t ...

, prompted by the

U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is a cabinet-level executive branch department of the US federal government created to protect the health of the US people and providing essential human services. Its motto is "Im ...

, which had provided Cade with a small grant for his research, asked for the patent rights.Julian M. Pleasants, Gator Tales: An Oral History of the University of Florida, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, pp. 129–130 (2006). Cade refused. The Board of Regents, acting on behalf of the university, then brought suit against Cade for a share of the profits, arguing that the university's facilities, employees and students were instrumental in the development of the product.Proctor & Langley, ''Gator History'', p. 55. After thirty-one months of legal wrangling, Cade and the university negotiated a settlement of their dispute in 1972, and the Board of Regents and the university settled for a twenty percent share of the royalties. Cade, and his investors in the Gatorade Trust, retained eighty percent. In the aftermath of the settlement, Cade and the university resolved their differences amicably, and expanded their professional relationships—of the first $70,500 in Gatorade royalties received by the university, the university reinvested $30,000 in kidney research by Cade's renal department and another $12,000 in Cade's other research projects. Cade, for his part, created multiple scholarships and contributed generously to the university from his own royalties over the following years.

Legacy

Up to 2007, the University of Florida has received over $150 million from its share of the Gatorade royalties. As of 2015, this total has increased to $281 million. Cade and his associates' share of the royalties is undisclosed, the majority of their rights having been sold to Stokely-Van Camp. After the settlement, Cade continued to work for the university, and the college of medicine named him professor

emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". In some c ...

of nephrology upon his retirement in 2004. In April 2007, several months before his death, the

University Athletic Association The University Athletic Association (UAA) is an intercollegiate athletic conference that competes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III. Member schools are highly selective universities located in Georgia, Illino ...

inducted Cade into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as an "honorary

letter winner In sports or activities in the United States, a letterman is a high school or college student who has met a specified level of participation or performance on a varsity team. Overview The term comes from the practice of awarding each such part ...

." Gatorade, now owned by

PepsiCo PepsiCo, Inc. is an American multinational corporation, multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation headquartered in Harrison, New York, in the hamlet of Purchase, New York, Purchase. PepsiCo's business encompasses all aspects of the f ...

, is today sold in some eighty countries and over fifty various flavors. In contrast to the forty-three dollars that Cade and his team spent to make the first experimental batch of Gatorade in 1965, Gatorade prompted the evolution of a multibillion-dollar sports drink industry in the years that followed; as of 2007, over seven billion bottles of Gatorade were being sold annually in the United States.Neil Amdur,
Raise a Glass to the Father of Energy Drinks
" ''The New York Times'' (December 2, 2007). Retrieved December 10, 2014. While he was surprised by its commercial success as a sports drink, Cade took greater pride in Gatorade's use in hospitals, in post-operative recovery and to treat

diarrhea Diarrhea (American English), also spelled diarrhoea or diarrhœa (British English), is the condition of having at least three loose, liquid, or watery bowel movements in a day. It often lasts for a few days and can result in dehydration d ...

-related dehydration in infants and young children. Cade's other research included

hypertension Hypertension, also known as high blood pressure, is a Chronic condition, long-term Disease, medical condition in which the blood pressure in the artery, arteries is persistently elevated. High blood pressure usually does not cause symptoms i ...

exercise physiology Exercise physiology is the physiology of physical exercise. It is one of the allied health professions, and involves the study of the acute responses and chronic adaptations to exercise. Exercise physiologists are the highest qualified exercise ...

autism Autism, also known as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by differences or difficulties in social communication and interaction, a preference for predictability and routine, sensory processing d ...

schizophrenia Schizophrenia () is a mental disorder characterized variously by hallucinations (typically, Auditory hallucination#Schizophrenia, hearing voices), delusions, thought disorder, disorganized thinking and behavior, and Reduced affect display, f ...

and

kidney disease Kidney disease, or renal disease, technically referred to as nephropathy, is damage to or disease of a kidney. Nephritis is an Inflammation, inflammatory kidney disease and has several types according to the location of the inflammation. Infla ...

. His research into carbo-loading substantiated the early claims of Swedish researchers, and he also invented a hydraulic football helmet that substantially reduced the risk of concussion to football players. Cade was an active, lifelong member of the

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

church, and he was recognized by the church with its Wittenberg Award in 1991. He gave generously to many Lutheran colleges and organizations. In their later years, Cade and his wife established the Gloria Dei Foundation, an organization that makes grants to aid the "poor and underserved." Cade was a talented violinist who sometimes played with local symphony orchestras. Cade acquired collections of more than thirty violins and more than sixty vintage

Studebaker Studebaker was an American wagon and automobile manufacturer based in South Bend, Indiana, with a building at 1600 Broadway, Times Square, Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Founded in 1852 and incorporated in 1868 as the Studebaker Brothers Man ...

automobiles. He and his wife continued to live in the same Gainesville house that they owned before the financial success of Gatorade. On November 27, 2007, Cade died of

kidney failure Kidney failure, also known as renal failure or end-stage renal disease (ESRD), is a medical condition in which the kidneys can no longer adequately filter waste products from the blood, functioning at less than 15% of normal levels. Kidney fa ...

, at the age of 80, in Gainesville. He was survived by his wife Mary, their six children, twenty grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. The Cade Museum Foundation, established in 2004 and chaired by Cade's daughter, Phoebe Cade Miles,The Cade Museum for Innovation and Invention
Cade Museum Board
. Retrieved December 10, 2014. announced in 2010 that it had begun raising funds to construct a new building for the Cade Museum in Gainesville, with a groundbreaking planned for 2015. The museum opened in May 2018. On September 26, 2013, Florida Governor

Rick Scott Richard Lynn Scott ( Myers; born December 1, 1952) is an American attorney, businessman, politician, and United States Navy, Navy veteran serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States senator from the state of F ...

posthumously honored Cade as a "

Great Floridian Great Floridian is a title bestowed on citizens of Florida by the Florida Department of State. There were actually two formal programs. The Great Floridian 2000 program honored deceased individuals who made "significant contributions in the histor ...

" during a ceremony at the Cade Museum.Shannon Chernoff,
Gatorade Inventor Honored With Great Floridian Award
" WUFT (September 27, 2013). Retrieved December 10, 2014. The award honors those people who made "major contributions to the progress and welfare" of Florida.

References

Bibliography

*Golenbock, Peter, ''Go Gators! An Oral History of Florida's Pursuit of Gridiron Glory'', Legends Publishing, LLC, St. Petersburg, Florida (2002). . *Hairston, Jack, ''Tales from the Gator Swamp: A Collection of the Greatest Gator Stories Ever Told'', Sports Publishing, LLC, Champaign, Illinois (2002). . *Pleasants, Julian M., ''Gator Tales: An Oral History of the University of Florida'', University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida (2006). . *Proctor, Samuel
Dr. James Robert Cade Interview
Samuel Proctor Oral History Project, George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida (1996). *Proctor, Samuel, & Wright Langley, ''Gator History: A Pictorial History of the University of Florida'', South Star Publishing Company, Gainesville, Florida (1986). . *Rovell, Darren,
First In Thirst: How Gatorade Turned The Science of Sweat Into A Cultural Phenomenon
', Amacom Books, New York, New York (2006). .

External links