Gatorade creator dies of kidney failure at age 80

0 Comments | AFP, November, 2007

MIAMI (AFP) — Robert Cade, who invented Gatorade, pioneering the multimillion dollar energy drinks industry, died Tuesday of kidney failure, the University of Florida (UF) announced. Cade was 80.

Cade, a kidney specialist, died at the UF, where he and a team of researchers developped the drink in 1965 as a way to keep the Gators, the university's American football team, hydrated on the field.

"The mixture of glucose and sodium didn't taste like much until his wife suggested they add lemons," UF said in a statement.

"We got lemon squeezers' cramp after five lemons," Cade joked in 2005. "We liked the taste of it though no one else did. Then we made it sweet and we thought it tastes very good."

UF said the beverage made its first big headlines in 1966,...