As the regular season is getting close to an end, I thought it would be appropriate to C&P the history of the Gatorade bath. Here's hoping that the daddy of the baths gets one this weekend. Jim Burt wrote in his book that it first happened in 1984. Harry Carson, who took over the role of instigator, claims it began in 1985. Gatorade, the biggest benefactor of "The Dunk," lists 1986. Tracing its fuzzy history only adds to the mystique of what has become an NFL ritual: dousing the winning coach with a five-gallon bucket of liquid. Gatorade showers are woven into the fabric of the game, the childish antics having become almost required after big victories. We owe it all to Cowboys coach Bill Parcells and his team's opponent this week, the New York Giants. The splash was born out of anger, not celebration. It was Burt's way of getting back at Parcells. According to Burt's book and several other reports, the first bath came on Oct. 28, 1984. Leading up to a game with the Redskins, Parcells publicly reprimanded Burt for his recent play and rode him hard all week. He tried virtually everything to get the nose tackle motivated for his matchup against center Jeff Bostic, including a reported 45-minute session in the weight room. In the waning moments of the Giants' 37-13 win, Burt locked eyes with Parcells. "I got you ready for this game," Parcells reportedly told Burt. Burt, though, had the last word: "I just looked for the Gatorade bucket and dumped it over his head." Some say the container was filled with Gatorade. Others say it was water. Toward the end of the next game, a victory over the Cowboys, Burt asked Carson to be his partner in crime. Carson, an All-Pro linebacker, had a good relationship with Parcells, so Burt figured that would help him avoid potential retribution. Burt quickly tired of the dunkings. But Carson gave them new life, helping the dunk become a phenomenon. The Giants doused Parcells during each of their 17 victories of the 1986 season, including their Super Bowl triumph. "The Gatorade shower was always Jim Burt's idea, but I just kind of took it over," Carson said. "If you know Bill Parcells, you know he's very superstitious. If you do something that works, you keep doing it. So we kept giving him a Gatorade shower. Everybody started doing it, and it became a ritual." Parcells didn't mind being the target of cold baths as long as the wins kept coming. As the 1986 season wore on, he sometimes would ask an equipment manager or someone to warn him of the dunk. "The superstition thing kind of made it into what it eventually became," Parcells said last week. "It always surprised me. I never had enough sense to recognize that potentially this could happen. I was too busy paying attention to what was going on. I avoided several and actually reversed it one time. I got him instead of him getting me." Newspaper cartoons showed Parcells holding containers of Gatorade, and his office was full of Gatorade items sent from fans. Parcells even got some promotional opportunities with Gatorade, which became the "official sports drink" of the NFL. The victory showers also showed another side of Parcells. While often viewed as a hard-nosed coach, the dunks revealed a softer side. He reacted to the first dumping with a smile. Players seemed to appreciate his letting them have fun at his expense. "It was good," Parcells said. "I enjoyed it and it became popular throughout the country. Now, is it ridiculous? Yeah, but it's fun, too." Victory splashes haven't all been fun, or even appropriate. Former Redskins coach George Allen contracted pneumonia in 1990 and died, a few weeks after his Long Beach State players dumped ice water on his head. Some say that may have contributed to his death, though an autopsy listed the cause as cardiac arrest resulting from an irregular heartbeat. In 2002, Kentucky coach Guy Morriss got the victory dunk two seconds too early. LSU's 75-yard touchdown pass on the final play left Morriss all wet in a loss. The victory splash has become clich?, the surprise of the act reduced after 19 years. The Cowboys gave Parcells a Gatorade shower after beating the Jets in Game 3 this season. As Marv Levy once said after getting doused, "I told them to knock it off and come up with something new. How about a couple of boxes of cigars?" Still, the Gatorade dunk lives, thanks to Parcells and his former Giants.
