Gatorade shower
Encyclopedia
Gatorade
Gatorade is a brand of sports-themed food and beverage products, built around its signature product: a line of sports drinks. Gatorade is currently manufactured by PepsiCo, distributed in over 80 countries...
shower, also known as the Gatorade dunk and the Gatorade bath, is a sports tradition that involves dumping a cooler full of liquid (most commonly Gatorade
Gatorade
Gatorade is a brand of sports-themed food and beverage products, built around its signature product: a line of sports drinks. Gatorade is currently manufactured by PepsiCo, distributed in over 80 countries...
mixed with ice
Ice cube
Ice cubes are small, roughly cube-shaped pieces of ice, conventionally used to cool beverages. Ice cubes are often preferred over crushed ice because they melt more slowly; they are standard in mixed drinks that call for ice, in which case the drink is said to be "on the rocks."Ice cubes are...
) over a coach's (or occasionally star player or owner's) head following a meaningful win, like the Super Bowl
Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is the championship game of the National Football League , the highest level of professional American football in the United States, culminating a season that begins in the late summer of the previous calendar year. The Super Bowl uses Roman numerals to identify each game, rather...
. The tradition began with the New York Giants
New York Giants
The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in East Rutherford, New Jersey, representing the New York City metropolitan area. The Giants are currently members of the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
football team in the mid-1980s. According to several sources, including Jim Burt
Jim Burt (football player)
James P. Burt is a former American football player who played for the New York Giants and San Francisco 49ers in the National Football League...
of the Giants
New York Giants
The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in East Rutherford, New Jersey, representing the New York City metropolitan area. The Giants are currently members of the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
, it began on October 28, 1984, when the Giants beat the Washington Redskins 37-13, and Burt performed the action on Bill Parcells
Bill Parcells
Duane Charles "Bill" Parcells is a former American football head coach, most recently with the Dallas Cowboys from 2003 to 2006...
after being angry over the coach's treatment of him that week. Burt insisted that Harry Carson
Harry Carson
Harold Donald Carson is a former American football inside linebacker who played his entire professional career for the NFL's New York Giants...
dump the Gatorade on Parcells, because Carson was a favorite and wouldn't get in trouble. However, former Chicago Bears
Chicago Bears
The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
defensive tackle Dan Hampton
Dan Hampton
Daniel Oliver Hampton also known as "Danimal" is a retired Hall of Fame American football defensive tackle who played twelve seasons for the Chicago Bears from 1979 to 1990 in the National Football League. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2002...
claims he invented the shower in 1984, when the Bears dunked Mike Ditka
Mike Ditka
Michael Keller Ditka, Jr. is a former American football NFL player, television commentator, and coach. Ditka coached the Chicago Bears for 11 years and New Orleans Saints for three years. Ditka and Tom Flores are the only two people to win Super Bowls as a player, an assistant coach, and a head...
upon clinching the NFC Central. The phenomenon gained national attention in the 1986 Giants season
1986 New York Giants season
The 1986 New York Giants season was one of the most successful seasons in the professional American football franchise's history. The Giants, who play in the National Football Conference of the National Football League , won their fifth championship—and first Super Bowl—in franchise history during...
. Parcells was doused after 17 victories that season, culminating with Super Bowl XXI
Super Bowl XXI
Super Bowl XXI was an American football game played on January 25, 1987 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California to decide the National Football League champion following the 1986 regular season. The National Football Conference champion New York Giants won their first Super Bowl by defeating...
.
In 2005, ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
sports business writer Darren Rovell published a book entitled First in Thirst: How Gatorade Turned the Science of Sweat into a Cultural Phenomenon, in which he documented, among other things, the story behind the Gatorade dunking phenomenon.
Boston Celtics
Boston Celtics
The Boston Celtics are a National Basketball Association team based in Boston, Massachusetts. They play in the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference. Founded in 1946, the team is currently owned by Boston Basketball Partners LLC. The Celtics play their home games at the TD Garden, which...
coach Doc Rivers
Doc Rivers
Glenn Anton "Doc" Rivers is a former professional basketball player and the current head coach of the NBA's Boston Celtics. Rivers was known for his defense while playing in the NBA...
was reported to be the first NBA coach to receive a Gatorade shower when his team won the 2008 NBA championship. Paul Pierce
Paul Pierce
Paul Anthony Pierce , nicknamed The Truth, is an American professional basketball player for the Boston Celtics of the NBA. He earned First Team All-America honors in his junior year at Kansas, and has been a starter every season since being selected by the Celtics with the 10th overall pick in the...
dumped a cooler of red Gatorade over Rivers as the Celtics closed out Game 6 to clinch their first NBA title in 22 years.
Kentucky Wildcats
Kentucky Wildcats football
The Kentucky Wildcats football team is a college football program that competes in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision and the East Division of the Southeastern Conference.-History:Paul "Bear" Bryant Era...
coach Guy Morriss
Guy Morriss
Guy W. Morriss is an American football coach and former player. He is currently the head football coach at Texas A&M University–Commerce, a position he has held since the 2009 season. Morriss served as the head football coach at the University of Kentucky for two seasons and at Baylor...
is one of the only coaches ever to receive a Gatorade shower and lose a game. This occurred on November 9, 2002, during the Bluegrass Miracle
Bluegrass Miracle
The "Bluegrass Miracle" refers to one of the most improbable finishes in NCAA college football history. It was a 74-yard game-winning touchdown pass by the #14 LSU Tigers with no time left on the clock against the Kentucky Wildcats on November 9, 2002 at Commonwealth Stadium in Lexington,...
, when LSU
LSU Tigers football
The LSU Tigers football team, also known as the Fighting Tigers or Bayou Bengals, represents Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States in NCAA Division I FBS college football. Current head coach Les Miles has led the team since 2005. Since 1999 when Nick Saban took over as...
defeated Kentucky
Kentucky Wildcats football
The Kentucky Wildcats football team is a college football program that competes in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision and the East Division of the Southeastern Conference.-History:Paul "Bear" Bryant Era...
. Coach Morriss was showered immediately before Marcus Randall
Marcus Randall
Marcus Randall is an American football player who plays for Team Arkansas of the All American Football League. Randall played quarterback for LSU, Tennessee Titans and Green Bay Packers of the National Football League.-College career:...
threw a Hail Mary pass
Hail Mary pass
A Hail Mary pass or Hail Mary route in American football refers to any very long forward pass made in desperation with only a small chance of success, especially at or near the end of a half....
to Devery Henderson
Devery Henderson
-New Orleans Saints:On November 5, 2006, Devery had his best day as a professional in a game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he caught 3 passes for 111 yards and 2 touchdowns. Henderson had 158 receiving yards on 5 catches, including a 76 yard touchdown, against the Atlanta Falcons on November...
to win on the final play of the game.
Many teams do not use Gatorade but instead use water as a substitute; for example, the Florida State Seminoles
Florida State Seminoles
The Florida State Seminoles are the men's and women's sports teams of Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida. Florida State participates in the NCAA's Division I . FSU joined the Atlantic Coast Conference in 1991, and competes in the Atlantic Division in any sports split into a...
and the Miami Hurricanes
Miami Hurricanes
The Miami Hurricanes, of Coral Gables, Florida, are the varsity sports teams of the University of Miami. They compete in the Coastal Division of the Atlantic Coast Conference . The university fields 15 athletic teams for 17 varsity sports...
use Powerade
Powerade
Powerade is a sports drink manufactured and marketed by The Coca-Cola Company. First introduced in 1988, its primary competitor is PepsiCo's Gatorade...
, due to Gatorade's affiliation with rival University of Florida
University of Florida
The University of Florida is an American public land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant research university located on a campus in Gainesville, Florida. The university traces its historical origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its present Gainesville campus since September 1906...
. After Michigan State University
Michigan State University
Michigan State University is a public research university in East Lansing, Michigan, USA. Founded in 1855, it was the pioneer land-grant institution and served as a model for future land-grant colleges in the United States under the 1862 Morrill Act.MSU pioneered the studies of packaging,...
's win over Penn State in 2010, Spartan players dumped a Gatorade bucket filled with green and white confetti on head coach Mark Dantonio
Mark Dantonio
Mark Dantonio is the current head football coach at Michigan State University. He was hired on November 27, 2006 and became the 24th head coach at Michigan State. He is credited for winning the 2010 Big Ten Championship and his 4 game win streak over arch-rival Michigan...
. This was done because of the cold temperature and Dantonio's heart condition.
The tradition has become a mainstay of the Super Bowl; so much so that numerous gambling websites have established various 'prop bets' on situations during the game. Many of these bets are unrelated to the actual sporting event. For the 2011 Super Bowl, a bet could be made on what color the Gatorade would be.
The "Gatorade Bath" made another appearance on July 27, 2011, at Progressive Field for the Angels pitcher Ervin Santana
Ervin Santana
Ervin Ramon Santana is a Major League Baseball right-handed starting pitcher for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.-Name:...
's no-hitter.