In the punishing Florida heat, the University of Florida's football team kept wilting in the second half — and no one knew why. So a group of university researchers set out to solve it. What they engineered in the lab to replace the fluids and electrolytes players were losing didn't just keep the Gators on their feet. It became Gatorade, one of the most successful sports products ever to come out of a university.

This is the story of how a sideline problem turned into a global brand — and how the science behind it still pays off today.