The orgin of the Gatorade dunk.

[MightyGiants]

The orgin of the Gatorade dunk.  More to it than I thought.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=rovell/051014

[kartanoman]

What happened at Wagener-Salley in South Carolina would not have occurred if New York Giants nose guard Jim Burt hadn't decided to seek revenge on his coach, Bill Parcells, in 1985.

The Giants were 3-3 that year, and Parcells, leading up to a game against the archrival Washington Redskins, was trying to motivate Burt.

"The whole week Coach Parcells was telling him how [Redskins offensive lineman] Jeff Bostic was going to eat him up, and it infuriated Jim," said teammate Harry Carson.

So Burt decided on a unique way to both celebrate and get back at his coach after their 17-3 victory over the Redskins. He grabbed the Gatorade cooler, which was still full of the liquid, and poured it on Parcells as time expired.

This is incorrect. The game where Burt first dumped Gatorade on Parcells was the 1984 week #9 encounter against the Redskins. The REAL genesis of the Gatorade Dunk is as follows:

Headed into the 1984 week #9 contest against the Redskins at Giants Stadium, the Skins had taken the last six games between the two teams. In addition, the Giants were still seething after a fourth quarter meltdown in week #3 that witnessed a tenuous 14-13 Giants' lead turn into a shocking 30-14 defeat. The Giants, 4-4 at the time, desprately needed the Redskins' rematch to get back into the playoff picture and instill confidence in the team as they headed into the meat of their schedule where they would face their NFC East rivals in three of the next four weeks (i.e. Skins in wk #9, Cowboys in week #10 and the Cards in week #12).

Coach Parcells knew that, in order to have a shot at winning this game, he needed to contain John Riggins who had been a Giant-killer up to that point.  During the week of preparation leading up to the game, Parcells spent most of it pushing Jim Burt's buttons.  Among the games Parcells played included him constantly yelling at Burt throughout the week, making him do long weight lifting sessions that left Burt's arms numb and on fire, and topped off by Parcells telling the press that the Redskins' Rick Donnalley (Burt's main matchup in the game) had better watch out because Burt was ready for him.  While he knew he was really pissing Burt off, he also knew that Burt would be fired up and be ready to shut down the running lanes to limit Riggins' effectiveness.  The plan worked according to script as Riggins was held to 51 yards rushing for the day on 16 carries.  Near the end of the match, Parcells had walked up to Burt, smiled, and said "I got you ready for the game, didn't I?"  As Parcells walked away, Burt knew he had to get even.  His response was something that shocked the players, drove the fans into further frenzy, and proved to be the start of a new tradition that Giant fans would come to know as "The Gatorade Shower!"  At first, after Burt dumped the bucket on Parcells, he figured he'd be in big trouble.  Through it all, Parcells couldn't stop smiling - his team had FINALLY taken down the Redskins.  Harry Carson knew about Parcells and his superstitions, so he logically concluded that the Giants now had to dump the bucket's contents onto Parcells every time the Giants won.  There you have it - a birth of a tradition!

The article made mention of the Bears' Hampton attempting to take credit for the first dunk, in week #13 of the 1984 season. Go back and do the math ... Jim Burt's execution of the dunk came four weeks beforehand.

Yet another in a long line of erroneous articles where these journalists don't take the time to properly research the facts ... and, as Chris Allen used to say, the beat goes on!

Peace!