Did ABC Get Duped By FSU?
Thursday, December 04, 2008
Darren Rovell at CNBC noticed during the FSU-Florida game this past Saturday that the team of Nessler, Griese and Maguire had a "Did You Know?" that said that Florida State and not U of F was actually credited with inventing the Sports Drink Gatorade. Being extremely confused, since he wrote an entire book on the subject, Rovell set out to find the truth and these were his findings....
Neither had Dr. Dana Shires, one of Gatorade’s four inventors, who was actually watching the game at the time. “Of course I’ve never heard of it,” Shires said. “It’s just another stupid stunt from the guys at Florida State.”I don't know who works at the ABC Football research department, but there has to be something more to the reason why they chose to say that on-air. I mean it's widely known that Florida is credited with the invention, so I'd love to hear why they went with Florida State in that moment. Very odd, and it'll be interesting if anything more comes of this.
If I were a researcher for ABC, I doubt I would go with that story after I found only 41 hits for “Seminole firewater.” Or after the doctor who supposedly invented the stuff—an R.A. Johnson —only came up when this “Seminole firewater” was referenced.
The story probably came from a jokester who put it up on Wikipedia. Then, a site called the history of branding, which doesn’t even exist anymore, put it on their site and then it hit all the message boards and voila–a creation becomes a fact.
The University of Florida is so concerned about this new revelation that they are supposed to issue a press release later today, perhaps to quell what has become the hottest new smack talk in Florida.
Ok, What's All This About FSU "Inventing" Gatorade? (CNBC: Sports Biz)
16 Comments:
Truely Awful Announcing.
Has nobody at ABC seen the Keith Jackson commercial about the invention of Gatorade which has been running for five years now?
Perhaps they mentioned it because it is true. Here is a link to a Tampa Tribune article from 1962, 5 years before Gatorade was supposedly invented: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_oTUJTI_tVG0/STWdDLsvuQI/AAAAAAAAAeA/mPbAY6pXkI8/s1600-h/Seminolefirewater.jpg
The story goes that Dr. R.A. Johnson shared this stuff with other trainers and doctors at a national athletic conference. Florida then took the info, perhaps did a tweak or two, and patented the idea. If you know the history of this rivalry, nothing at should surprise you of what could occur.
We have a Chester J. Lampwick scenario unfolding? Meh. I don't think coaches wanted to be dumped with a bucket of Seminade anyway.
Or, even worse, Seminole Fluid.
You guys owe me dap for getting this FARKed! Lol
@ H.L. Prindle III: Any link to the actual article, and not a photocopy. Because otherwise, I (as I'm sure everyone) else sees this as nothing more than a fake article that some douchebag wrote to further claim veracity to this prank. The fact that someone scribbled in sharpie Tampa Tribune 9/25/62 does not convince me in the least. How can we be sure this wasn't an article in the Seminole school newspaper made to deceive ABC (as they did).
And what else did this supposed genius doctor, Dr. R.A. Johnson do anyway? I mean, surely he was famous for this ingenius creation and surely it was well known that it was his recipe that gave to Florida and surely he would have speaken up about someone stealing his creation.....
Sorry for the soapbox rant guys. And even though I'm completely neutral in the Florida-FSU rivalry, this kind of douchebaggery pisses me off.
To me, there is no substantial evidence that this occurred. It's bogus and no one can confirm it with a legitimate track record.
"Has nobody at ABC seen the Keith Jackson commercial about the invention of Gatorade which has been running for five years now?"
Exactly! For crying out loud, Jackson was the freakin' voice of college football on ABC for decades!
It could only be LESS believable if the Dr's name was Richard Head.
Rovell updated the story in a later post. Bottom line: the Tampa Tribune article is legit, Seminole Firewater wasn't Gatorade, FSU didn't win anything, UF invented their own drink recipe, won games, patented their drink, marketed it expertly, and Seminole Firewater was forgotten.
His followup
resident assistant johnson....i think he was my ra lol
If a photocopied newspaper where the only place the date is just written with a sharpie pen is the best evidence, then I'm sorry, I don't care what the most well knowledged experts say, it's still bullshit from where I stand.
Show me an actual newspaper with the date typed on it, find some more informaton about this Dr. R.A. Johnson. Why isn't he stepping forward about this? If he's dead now, why didn't he step forward about it? Why is it that this story first appeared on blogs in the year 2007? 45 years after the drink was manufactured!
Again, I am not a Florida alum, sympathesizer, or fan. I have nothing against FSU. This is just pure, unadulterated, bullshit.
Longtime Tallahassee resident & FSU team physician Dr. Robert Johnson passed away several years ago. His family has many articles regarding Seminole Firewater for the last 30+ years, but we have not been contacted until recently for them.
I don't understand what all the commotion is about. It's an electrolyte drink that he invented in 1962. He shared at a medical conference in Tallahassee. UF patented the recipe. End of story.
The family has documentation, articles & facts. If you want to know more, investigate.
This sounds like a story that Kirk Herbstreit would break.