Gatorade Shower (Gatorade Bath)

Entry in progress—B.P
Gatorade
 
Wikipedia: Gatorade shower
The Gatorade shower, also known as the Gatorade dunk and the Gatorade bath, is an American sports tradition that involves dumping a cooler full of liquid (most commonly Gatorade mixed with ice) over a coach’s (or occasionally star player or owner’s) head following a meaningful win, such as the Super Bowl.
 
Start of tradition
The tradition began with the New York Giants football team in the mid-1980s. According to several sources, including Jim Burt of the Giants, it began on October 20, 1985, when the Giants beat the Washington Redskins 17-3, and Burt performed the action on Bill Parcells after being angry over the coach’s treatment of him that week. Burt insisted that Harry Carson dump the Gatorade on Parcells, because Carson was a favorite and wouldn’t get in trouble. However, former Chicago Bears defensive tackle Dan Hampton claims he invented the shower in 1984, when the Bears dunked Mike Ditka upon clinching the NFC Central. The phenomenon gained national attention in the 1986 Giants season. Parcells was doused after 17 victories that season, culminating with Super Bowl XXI.
 
8 March 1986, Daily News of Los Angeles (Los Angeles, CA), “Kennedy Girls Win Second City Title”:
When Raub entered the locker room after finishing with media interviews, DeCree greeted him by pouring an entire bottle of Gatorade over his head.
 
13 October 1986, Philadelphia (PA) Inquirer, “Things started badly and never got better,” Sports, pg. C5:
That Carson cutely escaped a sideline Gatorade bath from one of his teammates as the game was winding down?
 
Google News Archive
10 January 1987, Calgary (Alberta) Herald, “The Man Behind The Ritual” by Gary Myers (Dallas Morning News), pg. F3, col. 1:
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J.—At first, it was a joke. Now, it’s a ritual.
 
New York Giants are winning, it’s the final minute, and linebacker Harry Carson grabs the Gatorade jug. He sneaks up behind head coach Bill Parcells and drenches him.
 
“If they want to have a little fun, it’s all right with me,” Parcells says. “It’s not all life and death.”
(...)
The Gatorade shower was born, appropriately enough, when the Giants beat Washington in 1984.
 
Google News Archive
16 January 1987, Gainesville (FL) Sun, pg. 3D, col. 5:
Giants antics give Gatorade
makers welcome publicity
The Associated Press
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J.—Little did the makers of Gatorade know that fateful week in October 1985 just how grateful they would be to bill Parcells and a certain relentless coaching technique.
(...)
“Parcells was all over (nose guard) Jim Burt like an octopus,” said team spokesman Ed Croke. “He was screaming and yelling at him all week.”
 
The coach was trying to fire up Burt because he knew he needed an inspired performance from the 260-pound defensive lineman if the Giants were going to prevail.
 
Win they did, 17-3.
 
“Burt had an outstanding game and when it was almost over Parcells went up to him and said, ‘I got you ready.’ And Burt said, ‘You sure got me ready’ and duped a cooler of Gatorade on him,” Croke said Wednesday.
     
New York (NY) Times
A Splashy Tradition, Gatorade-Style
By SAM BORDEN
Published: January 20, 2012
(...)
While that is seen by most as the first appearance of the shower — with its popularity surging the following season when the Giants did it regularly during the playoffs, including at the Super Bowl when Carson donned a security shirt as a kind of disguise — there is a small faction that believes the Chicago Bears deserve credit for the craze because the former lineman Dan Hampton was said to have spearheaded a dunking of Coach Mike Ditka after a victory in 1984.
 
Steve Sabol, the president and founder of NFL Films and a historian of all things football, finds no merit in that claim.
 
“I never saw any evidence of that in any of our footage,” Sabol said in a telephone interview. “I believe it started with the Giants and it has just grown from there.”
   
Mental Floss
August 4, 2013
Who Invented the Gatorade Shower?
Ethan Trex
WHO STARTED THE GATORADE SHOWER?
Although the exact origins of the tradition are hotly debated, former New York Giants defensive tackle Jim Burt often gets the credit for the first bath. According to Darren Rovell’s interesting book First in Thirst: How Gatorade Turned the Science of Sweat into a Cultural Phenomenon, Burt had the idea for the prank while the Giants were struggling during the 1985 season. Head coach Bill Parcells had been riding Burt pretty hard before a midseason game against the Washington Redskins, and after the Giants emerged from that game with a 17-3 win, Burt playfully dumped a cooler full of Gatorade on the Big Tuna.
 
Linebacker Harry Carson, a favorite of Parcells, took the baths to the next level.