It was never about winning or losing with Dr. J. Robert Cade. From our first telephone conversation 41 years ago, it was always about helping others and solving problems, like the dozens of young football players across the country who were dehydrating and having strokes during practices and games.

Concerned about training misinformation, Cade and his researchers at the University of Florida collected the sweat of freshman football players in rubber gloves during practice in the fall of 1965 and found something startling: each one lost 2.5 to 4.2 liters, or as much as 9 pounds, each session.

A year later, as Florida roared through a 9-2 season and a victory in the Orange Bowl, the electrolyte solution that some players called Cade’s Cola became Gatorade, and as much a part of Florida football lore that year as Steve Spurrier’s Heisman Trophy season.

I wrote the first article on Gatorade, for The Miami Herald, on Nov. 30, 1966. In his typically unaffected fashion, Cade was astonished about the fuss.