<P> Shortly after the 1969 Orange Bowl , Robert Cade entered into an agreement providing Stokely - Van Camp , Inc . ( S - VC ) , a canned - food packaging company , with the U.S. rights to production and sale of Gatorade as a commercial product . In the same year , a licensing arrangement made Gatorade the official sports drink of the National Football League ( NFL ) , representing the first in a history of professional sports sponsorship for the Gatorade brand . A year after its commercial introduction , S - VC tested multiple variations of the original Gatorade recipe , finally settling on more palatable variants in lemon - lime and orange flavors . This reformulation also removed the sweetener cyclamate -- which was banned by the Food and Drug Administration ( FDA ) in 1969 - replacing it with additional fructose . In the early 1970s , legal questions arose regarding whether or not the researchers who invented Gatorade were entitled to ownership of its royalties , since they had been working under a research grant from the federal government which provided financial stipends . The University of Florida also claimed partial rights of ownership , which was brought to resolution in 1973 in the form of a settlement awarding the university with a 20 - percent share of Gatorade royalties . As of 2009 , the university had received more than $150 million from its share , and was receiving approximately $12 million per year . </P>
<P> Shortly after the 1969 Orange Bowl , Robert Cade entered into an agreement providing Stokely - Van Camp , Inc . ( S - VC ) , a canned - food packaging company , with the U.S. rights to production and sale of Gatorade as a commercial product . In the same year , a licensing arrangement made Gatorade the official sports drink of the National Football League ( NFL ) , representing the first in a history of professional sports sponsorship for the Gatorade brand . A year after its commercial introduction , S - VC tested multiple variations of the original Gatorade recipe , finally settling on more palatable variants in lemon - lime and orange flavors . This reformulation also removed the sweetener cyclamate -- which was banned by the Food and Drug Administration ( FDA ) in 1969 - replacing it with additional fructose . In the early 1970s , legal questions arose regarding whether or not the researchers who invented Gatorade were entitled to ownership of its royalties , since they had been working under a research grant from the federal government which provided financial stipends . The University of Florida also claimed partial rights of ownership , which was brought to resolution in 1973 in the form of a settlement awarding the university with a 20 - percent share of Gatorade royalties . As of 2009 , the university had received more than $150 million from its share , and was receiving approximately $12 million per year . </P>
when was gatorade first sold to the public
when was gatorade first sold to the public
1969
1969