The Gatorade Shower Was Started By Jim Burt in 1984

Published on October 9th, 2022 11:14 am EST
Written By: Dave Manuel


With the last remaining seconds of the Super Bowl ticking down, the coach of the winning team gets doused by a "Gatorade shower".

If a team wins the Super Bowl, makes the playoffs for the first time in a long time or even wins a big game, there is a good chance that the head coach will get doused by a big bucket of Gatorade, which is always sitting on the sidelines.

Where did this practice start?

There is some confusion over the answer to this question.

Many people think that the Chicago Bears started the "Gatorade shower" during the 1984 season, but this isn't true.

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In fact, Jim Burt of the New York Giants started the tradition on October 28th, 1984.

The New York Giants were seconds away from defeating the Washington Redskins 37-13 in front of a raucous crowd, and Burt decided that it would be funny to douse coach Bill Parcells.

There was some backstory, as Parcells had reportedly made Burt lift a 20-pound weight over his head, over and over, for 45 minutes during a practice.

Burt decided that he was going to exact some "revenge" on his coach.

As the game was coming to a close, Burt doused his coach, much to the delight of everybody, including Parcells himself.

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The "Gatorade shower" would become a tradition for the Giants.

The shower was really cemented during the 1986-87 season, as the Giants would end up winning the Super Bowl. The team doused Parcells after every win, including the Super Bowl.

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When the New York Giants visited the White House to celebrate their Super Bowl victory, linebacker Harry Carson dumped a bucket-full of popcorn on then-President, Ronald Reagan (it was thought that using actual Gatorade might be a bad idea).

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Many people claim that the Chicago Bears started the "Gatorade dumping" trend, but it was actually Jim Burt and the New York Giants that started and popularized it.