For many years, a handwritten sign hung on the door of Dr. Robert Cade’s lab in the basement of the UF Health Science Center.

“Home of Gatorade, handmade by licensed physicians.”

The 50th anniversary of Gatorade’s landmark discovery was celebrated last fall in full force. It included an iconic commercial from the beverage company, an ESPN documentary, commemorative bottles and a university-wide event in Gainesville honoring the Gatorade inventors and the legacy of their creation.

It was 1965 when Cade and his three research fellows in the department of nephrology, H. James Free, MD ’60, Dana Shires, MD ’61, and Alejandro de Quesada, MD, set out to answer a simple question posed by a friend in the cafeteria at UF Health Shands (then, Shands Hospital). Dwayne Douglas, security chief for the hospital as well as a coach with the UF football team, asked if the doctors could explain why his players couldn’t urinate and were getting sick after playing in the brutal Florida heat.

“Why don’t you guys come over and look at our problem and see if you can make some suggestions,” Douglas told them, according to Shires.

What happened after that is UF history — told in last year’s “30 for 30 Shorts: The Sweat Solution” on ESPN and described by legendary sportscaster Keith Jackson in a 2002 commercial. It also is recounted in laboratories across the UF campus, as royalties from the sale of Gatorade have funded thousands of research projects over the years.

“The Gatorade legacy is stronger than ever at the University of Florida, most specifically at the College of Medicine,” said UF College of Medicine Dean Michael L. Good, MD, at the Oct. 1 Gatorade gala, which attracted university officials, executives from Gatorade, members of the Gatorade Trust and former Gator football players who were the original test subjects for the sports drink formula.

“Dr. Cade and his team not only invented a revolutionary beverage,” Good said, “they helped create an environment at UF where curiosity and innovation are encouraged. And what inspires that spirit is the potential of each discovery to change people’s lives forever.”

“For the millions of dollars in royalties that fund research,” Good continued, “and for the example of ingenuity they have entrusted to us, we owe a huge debt of gratitude to the Gatorade inventors.”