J. Robert Cade, M.D. Award

James Robert Cade, M.D., is known as the leader of the research team that formulated the sports drink Gatorade.

Dr. Cade graduated from Brackenridge High School in 1945 and served in the U.S. Navy as a pharmacist’s mate during the last months of World War II through 1948. After being discharged from the Navy, he enrolled in the University of Texas and completed his bachelor’s degree in 1950. After graduating with his medical degree from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas in 1954, Cade interned at the Saint Louis City Hospital in Saint Louis, MO and did his residency at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas. He also served fellowships at his alma mater, Southwestern Medical School, and Cornell University Medical College in New York, New York.

In 1961, Dr. Cade joined the faculty of the University of Florida College of Medicine as an assistant professor of internal medicine. During 1965 and 1966, Dr. Cade, together with his team of research doctors, formulated Gatorade. He continued to work for the university, and the College of Medicine named him professor emeritus of nephrology upon his retirement in 2004.

In April 2007, several months before his death, the University Athletic Association inducted Cade into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as an “honorary letter winner.”

Cade passed away in 2007 at the age of 80.