With 41 days left before high school football season ...

We look at something today which I still don't get --- the Gatorade Shower. Yes, it has become enough of a cultural phenomenon, that it even has its own Wikipedia entry. Don't believe me, well, click on this link.

There is actually a flub over how the whole thing started. Some say the whole thing was born on Oct. 28, 1985, when then-New York Giants coach Bill Parcells got dumped on by Jim Burt.

But STOP!, not so fast my friend --- Former Chicago Bears defender Dan Hampton has a beef with that claim. 

Hampton says he invented the shower in 1984 when the Bears dunked Mike Ditka upon clinching the NFC Central.

 How does this pertain to a high school sports blog you ask? Well, I have an answer for you. It seems to me that Post-Gazette photographers through the years --- particularly Matt Freed and Peter Diana ---  have mastered the whole "dumping Gatorade on the coach" shot and have snapped a few great ones as football teams celebrated just after wins. All that said, I dredged a few of them up from the archives and here you go (to be accurate, three of the four look as if they are just plain water):  

 

JEANNETTE COACH RAY REITZ, 2007 PIAA CLASS AA CHAMPIONSHIP

 

CLAIRTON COACH TOM NOLA, 2006 WPIAL CLASS A CHAMPIONSHIP

 

THOMAS JEFFERSON COACH BILL CHERPAK, 2006 WPIAL CLASS AAA CHAMPIONSHIP

 

ALIQUIPPA COACH MIKE ZMIJANAC, 2003 WPIAL CLASS AA CHAMPIONSHIP

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