It was originally made for the school's student-athletes, the Gators, to replenish the carbohydrates that they burned and the combination of water and electrolytes that they lost in sweat during vigorous sports activities.

Gatorade was created in 1965, by a team of scientists at the University of Florida College of Medicine, including Robert Cade, Dana Shires, Harry James Free, and Alejandro de Quesada.

[7] Following a request from Florida Gators football head coach Ray Graves, Gatorade was created to help athletes by acting as a replacement for body fluids lost during physical exertion.

Like many of the sports drinks that pre-dated it by decades, such as Lucozade, the earliest version of the beverage consisted of a mixture of water, sodium, sugar, potassium, phosphate, and lemon juice.

"[9] Nonetheless, the football team credited Gatorade as having contributed to their first Orange Bowl win over the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in 1967, at which point the drink gained traction within the athletic community.

Darren Rovell notes in his history of Gatorade, First in Thirst, "the doctors realized that they probably shouldn't use the 'Aid' suffix, since that would mean that if the drink were ever marketed, they would have to prove that it had a clear medicinal use and perform clinical tests on thousands of people.

A year after its commercial introduction, S-VC tested multiple variations of the original Gatorade recipe, finally settling on more palatable variants in lemon-lime and orange flavors.

Beginning in the 1980s, the company expanded distribution of Gatorade, venturing into Canada in 1986, regions of Asia in 1987, South America and parts of Europe in 1988, and Australia in 1993.

[20] As the distribution of Gatorade expanded outside of the U.S., localized flavors were introduced to conform to regional tastes and cultural preferences, among other factors.

In the late 1970s, Stokely-Van Camp (owner of Gatorade before 1983) negotiated a long-term licensing deal with Swell and Vicks to market Gator Gum.

Three initial flavors under the Frost product line were introduced at this time: Alpine Snow, Glacier Freeze, and Whitewater Splash.

Flavors in the Frost line were the first from Gatorade to divert from fruit names; it was described as consisting of "light-tasting fruit-flavor blends".

[4] As of 2015[update], G2 has been produced in eight flavors: Orange, Fruit Punch, Grape, Lemon-Lime, Tropical blend, Blueberry-Pomegranate, Raspberry Melon, and Glacier Freeze.

Debuting in March 2008, Gatorade Tiger was available in Red Drive (cherry), Cool Fusion (lemon-lime), and Quiet Storm (grape).

It was reformulated, adding the amino acid theanine, which is naturally found in many forms of tea, improving mental focus.

[41] The G Series began to replace prior iterations of Gatorade product lines in the U.S. (the brand's highest volume market) in 2010.

[43] Labeled under the name G Series FIT, this product line consists of pre-workout fruit-and-nut bites, lightly flavored electrolyte replacement drinks, as well as post-workout protein recovery smoothies.

[46] The product was launched in 2016 with three initial flavors (Lemon, Mixed Berry, and Strawberry), was USDA certified organic through each step of the process, contained sea salt, and no artificial colors.

[21][22] The original Gatorade is based on oral rehydration therapy, a mixture of salt, sugar, and water, with the citrus-based flavoring and added food coloring.

[59] The American Heart Association states that children and teens should drink no more than 8 US fluid ounces (240 ml) of sugary beverages per week.

[68] The Gatorade Sports Science Institute (GSSI), a research facility operated in Barrington, Illinois, has been featured in a number of the company's commercials.

[69] Established in 1985 and closed in 2022,[70][3] this organization consisted of scientists studying the correlation and effects of exercise, environmental variables, and nutrition on the human body.

As a result, it developed a product called the "Gatorade In-Car Drinking System", which has since been implemented in the vehicles of many professional race car drivers.

A year later, Gatorade and the American College of Sports Medicine held a roundtable meeting on "exercise and fluid replacement".

[75] The ACSM published the meeting's results in 1996, advising athletes to drink "at a rate sufficient to replace all the water lost through sweating" or "the maximal amount that can be tolerated".

[79] South African exercise physiologist Tim Noakes found that Cynthia Lucero died from exercise-associated hyponatremic encephalopathy drinking Gatorade at "the rate recommended by the advertisements".

[80] Gatorade is the official sports drink of the NFL, MLB, NBA, WNBA, USA Basketball, NHL, Association of Volleyball Professionals, Indian Super League, High School Sports Teams, NASCAR, and other professional and collegiate athletic organizations,[3] providing supplies of the drinks to sponsored teams in some cases.

At the time, other athlete endorsers included basketball players Elena Delle Donne, Jayson Tatum, and Zion Williamson; NFL quarterback Trevor Lawrence; track star Sydney McLaughlin, and tennis great Serena Williams.

[87] By December 2023, Gatorade had signed three other college athletes to similar deals—football players Shedeur Sanders of Colorado and Nick Singleton of Penn State, and basketball superstar Caitlin Clark of Iowa.

This tradition was popularized in the mid-1980s when Harry Carson and Jim Burt, of the New York Giants, doused head coach Bill Parcells during the 1985 season.