UF honors Gatorade inventor Cade with evening of memories

University of Florida College of Medicine nephrologist James Robert “Bob” Cade, M.D., is often referred to as the inventor of Gatorade, the world’s best-selling sports beverage. But at a gala reception honoring Cade at UF’s Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art recently, he made it clear to an audience of about 300 friends and colleagues that he credits his success to the influence of others.

Speaking at the finale of a 75-minute presentation that included career highlights, anecdotes and heartfelt admiration from a half-dozen guests, the soft-spoken Texas native explained that his life had been touched by every person in the audience.

“I really believe that I am a part of everything I have met, and every one of you I’ve crossed paths with or walked shoulder-to-shoulder with at some time during my life,” said Cade, 76, who is now semi-retired but still works in his laboratory on the west side of campus five days a week. “And that means every time touching one of you it made me a different person. I am not the Bob Cade I was yesterday, and tomorrow I’ll be still a different Bob Cade.”

Cade recalled role models from his youth, including his violin teacher, minister and an English professor from his undergraduate days at the University of Texas at Austin, then named some medical mentors, including guest Donald W. Seldin, M.D., the William Buchanan Chair in Internal Medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, former UF cardiology division chief W. Jape Taylor, M.D., and former UF department of medicine Chairmen William Thomas Jr., M.D. and Leighton Cluff, M.D.

“I’m really honored that a whole bunch of you came,” Cade concluded. “Dr. Seldin, I am particularly honored (that he attended) because he is my mentor and my teacher and my ideal. I can very sincerely say that every one of you here tonight has had a real impact on my life, and how I look at life, and what is coming in the future. And I am a part of all that I have met, and I have met all of you. So thank you.”

The event celebrated not only Cade’s academic achievements but his unique personality and profound dedication to improving the lives of others, said Richard Johnson, M.D., who arrived at UF in September to become the College of Medicine’s chief of nephrology, hypertension and renal transplantation. Johnson and his staff arranged the reception, commissioned a portrait of Cade unveiled at the event, and organized a grand rounds lecture that bears Cade’s name, launched the morning of Jan. 15. Johnson holds the J. Robert Cade professor of nephrology chair.

“I am very, very proud of carrying his name,” Johnson said in an interview several days before the events. “When I looked at all the contributions that Dr. Cade gave not only to the division, the university and to medicine in general, I realized that this was an absolutely remarkable and incredible person.

“But it was not until I actually met him in person that I realized what a gem of a man he is. And he is incredibly gentle, creative and inspiring. And I realized that if there was any one person who deserved to be honored at the University of Florida, it was him.”

Cade arrived at the UF department of medicine’s renal division in 1961 as an assistant professor of medicine and quickly rose through the academic ranks to earn the title of professor in 1971 and serve as division chief from 1971 to 1978.

In 1965, Cade and three research fellows began developing a drink that combined water, sodium, potassium, phosphate and glucose, intended to help UF football players perform better on hot days by replacing electrolytes lost through perspiration. The drink, eventually christened Gatorade, spawned the sports beverage industry and remains its biggest-selling product. UF earns about $8 million each year in revenues from the Gatorade line of sports beverages. History buffs attending the grand rounds lecture, formally known as the J. Robert Cade Lectureship in Internal Medicine, were treated to firsthand anecdotes about Cade’s days as a medical student and resident from presenter Seldin, whom Cade described that evening as his foremost medical mentor. The two met in 1952.

“Bob Cade was different from every other student I had,” Seldin said. He described Cade as a “maverick” and said creativity was one key to his success. Seldin’s lecture concerned potassium excretion and drew a standing-room only crowd.

Setting a tone that would be echoed by the evening’s other speakers, Johnson described Cade’s accomplishments with a mixture of fond humor and admiration. Highlights included a look at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School campus — a converted Army base — as it existed in the 1950s and a letter written to Cade’s mother from an exasperated grade-school teacher.

Fellow nephrologist and College of Medicine Dean Craig Tisher, M.D., a former chief of UF’s nephrology division, offered a list of five notable character traits or “evidence-based Cadeisms,” borne out by events at UF.

Tisher began with light-hearted references to Cade’s love for restoring vintage Studebaker automobiles and his stint as a strolling violinist at the now-defunct Primrose Inn restaurant on University Avenue. But he grew serious as he described Cade as a “triple-threat player” — equally capable as a researcher, clinician and educator — and an outstanding humanitarian.

“Nobody in this room who truly knows Dr. Cade who doesn’t know of his generosity and that of (his wife Mary) for this community, this state and probably around the nation,” Tisher said. “He has given generously of his good fortune, if you will, from Gatorade and even before that, to any cause that he believes in.”

After delivering a fresh round of anecdotes about Cade’s days as a resident, Seldin described how Cade came to the aid of a former teacher, renowned renal physiologist Robert Pitts, M.D., Ph.D., at the end of Pitts’ career in the early 1970s. When another institution determined that Pitts’ contribution was no longer needed, Cade secured a position for him at UF.

“He did it on his own, there was no reward in any narrow sense,” Seldin said. “There was a reward only in the sense that he ennobled the school, ennobled himself, ennobled the university, and contributed warmth and kindness and decency in a collegial fashion.”

Next, H. James Free, M.D., and Alejandro M. deQuesada, M.D., discussed Cade the inventor. Both men began research fellowships under Cade in 1965, the year Gatorade’s development began, and are remembered along with Cade and Dana Shires, M.D., as the “Gatorade Guys.” Free, a retired private-practice internist who coined the name Gatorade, recalled that Cade taught by example and that some of his lessons included using one’s imagination, looking for the unexpected and keeping a sense of humor.

Free closed with a humorous recollection of a road trip to New Orleans, where Cade presented a paper at a conference. Afterward, the quartet of researchers sampled the Crescent City’s nightlife, and the evening ended with Cade reciting poetry and playing the violin in the hotel room, which he shared with Free. Picking up the story, deQuesada explained that even though he was staying in another room, he didn’t miss any of the late-night entertainment because Free and Shires telephoned his room to share Cade’s performance.

In closing, deQuesada credited Cade with teaching him to “be responsible, follow your instincts and do all you can for your patients.” In 1982, deQuesada and Shires co-founded the LifeLink Foundation, one of the largest nonprofit organizations in the United States dedicated to providing organs and tissues to transplant patients.

Former UF head football coach Ray Graves related his impressions of Cade during the mid-60s, as the nephrologist researched player fluid loss and tried to convince the coach to give the team early, experimental versions of the drink.

“I was always looking for anything that would help the Gators,” Graves said. “So I said, ‘OK, I’m willing to gamble a little bit, let’s try it with the freshmen on the B team.’ We started with it, and it wasn’t long before we realized, you know, even though it tasted — well, I can’t tell you what it tasted like. And I still don’t know what it tasted like. We made the freshmen on the B team drink it, but they didn’t like it, either.”

Cade gleefully recounted one of the more famous anecdotes from the early days of Gatorade development. Suffice it to say that a disgruntled player compared the drink’s taste to a bodily fluid. Cade fully evaluated the complaint, personally comparing the taste of both liquids.

As the laughter subsided, Cade left the podium to a standing ovation.