In celebration of the opening of college football season, I’d like to share an interesting fact with you from the sports science department of my alma mater, The Florida State University.

In the early 1950’s, a team of FSU researchers worked diligently to create a drink that would replenish the energy of the school’s hard-charging football players. Something that might give them the edge of more endurance and energy over their opposing teams. The result was that the first “sports drink” ever created was developed and consumed at FSU.

The University of Florida soon followed suit and then achieved wild success on the mass market with their own drink: Gatorade.

I’m pretty sure that mass market success could have been achieved by Florida State had they thought through the branding of their drink a bit more. It seems that the idea of replenishing your strength and energy by guzzling a pint of ‘Seminole Fluid’ on a hot day was a bit too off-putting-sounding to the masses.