In 1965 an obscure University of Florida football coach named Dwayne Douglas asked a "$64,000 question" that ultimately turned out to be worth a lot more than $64,000.

Encountering a medical school researcher named Robert Cade at a social gathering, Douglas posed a conundrum which had confounded thinkers, philosophers and Division I athletes for literally decades.

"Doc," he said, "how come when my boys go into the locker room after a hot day of practice, none of them has to pee?"

Any other doctor might have shrugged off such an indelicate inquiry, but Cade--who happened to be a kidney specialist--accepted the challenge of finding both an answer to the question and a solution to the underlying problem.

That solution can now be found in just about every grocery and convenience store in America. It's known as Gatorade, a product that moved from lab to locker room to grocer's shelf very seamlessly because of a well-conceived partnership between the University of Florida and Pepsico.

In recent years these types of business-education partnerships have increased in almost geometric proportions; moreover, they are increasingly common among liberal arts, community and proprietary colleges as well as research universities.

Kansas State University recently borrowed a page from Florida's book by starting a company called NutriJoy Inc., whose major product is "Cal-C," a nutritional beverage combining milk and fruit juice. That may sound stomach-curdling, but company claims of tastiness and wholesomeness are borne out by initial marketing success.

Curiously, Cal-C was not discovered in a KSU lab; rather, its genesis lay in an act of "strategic philanthropy" by Proctor & Gamble. That company, along with many others, donates unwanted intellectual property to IRS-qualified business and technology incubators such as the Mid-America Commercial-ization Corporation in Manhattan, Kansas.

MACC took the initiative to match up Proctor & Gamble's donated patents with seed money and prospective entrepreneurs. "The result," says MACC president Ron Sampson, "is a highly palatable fruit smoothie that is shelf-stable for long periods with or without refrigeration."

KSU, incidentally, is home to the largest intellectual property donation program in the country. The university currently controls over 250 donated patents from nearly a dozen Fortune 500 companies.

Northwest Missouri State Univ- ersity (NMSU) likes to crow about a successful partnership involving chickens.

Everyone knows you can't mass-produce chicken noodle soup without lots of poultry, and the Campbell's Soup plant in Tecumseh, Nebraska, had a problem that was pecking away at productivity: too much capacity; not enough meat. Someone had to make the business case for devoting local agricultural resources to chicken farming on a much grander scale.

According to agriculture professor Dr. Arley Larson, the university formulated a business plan that ultimately convinced 10 growers to build appropriate production facilities near Tecumseh. Since none cried foul, the production roster subsequently increased to 25 growers, each contracting to produce approximately 40,000 chickens every seven weeks.

Northwest Missouri's neighbor, Missouri Western State College, has carved out a niche in employee training and currently partners with 17 different companies. College spokesperson Kristy Hill says Western's continuing education division is unique in that it helps client businesses secure government training funds (more than $450,000 since 1995) and then provides the training itself. Clients range from small firms like Wire Rope and Research Seeds to national giants like Sara Lee and Nestle´ Purina.

Classes can be taught on campus or on site, and--if a business lacks adequate meeting rooms--MSWC uses its "mobile training unit." This is a large truck configured like a bookmobile without books. Instead, it holds 10 computer work stations. Hill says clients love the mobile classroom because it minimizes time out of office.

David Jewell, an adjunct professor in Benedictine College's Executive MBA program, helped convince AOL to use Benedictine as a test site for new products. As a result, students in Atchison are currently reviewing as many as 15 AOL prototype services that might eventually show up in the general marketplace.

In a related project, EMBA students were given an opportunity recently to conduct a comprehensive marketing survey for AOL. Students surveyed 2,800 Internet users and then provided third-party feedback to AOL on selected branding and pricing practices.

Dr. John E. Neal, president of Ottawa University, says one of his school's key partnerships is with a proprietary group called "Tech Skills." The Tech Skills network provides IT training to students in over two dozen cities, yielding a variety of formal certifications that provide entrée to the job market.

Current arrangements, Neal says, allow Tech Skills students to earn a bachelor's degree from Ottawa, "thereby enhancing opportunities for upward mobility." By the same token, traditional degree candidates at Ottawa can acquire specific credentials from Tech Skills that increase their own marketability.

Baker University also has a partnership that enhances students' IT credentials. According to associate dean Jan Asnicar, Baker students have access to a 47-credit-hour program which includes courses taught by both Baker faculty and representatives of Computer Source, Inc.

Central Missouri State University (CMSU) has been a catalyst in helping government contractors and federal procurement officials get better connected. Every spring for the past 15 years CMSU has sponsored an event called the Ike Skelton Federal Procurement Conference.

The conference provides exhibits, breakout sessions and networking opportunities that provide a comprehensive overview of federal contracting procedures. Despite Missouri's landlocked status, the program's initial focus was on Naval procurement. "Since then," says CMSU professor Wes Savage, "it's grown in all directions. People appreciate the opportunity to learn the federal government's language."

The language of bureaucracy is by no means the only linguistic challenge in today's business environment. Companies of all sizes, regardless of venue, are finding it increasingly difficult to serve employees and customers in English-only.

For this reason, continuing ed specialists at Washburn University launched a "Command Spanish" program over a year ago. Dean Tim Peterson says the university's goal is to provide Spanish instruction to as many occupational groups as possible, supplemented by attention to the idiosyncrasies of various Hispanic cultures. Washburn now offers some two dozen courses, each targeted to the linguistic needs of specific groups like bank tellers, nurses, police officers, social workers, teachers and construction, landscape and warehouse supervisors.

Park University is well known for architectural structures that lie both above and below ground. Accordingly, its physical facilities have given rise to a number of community partnerships. The O'Riada School of Irish Dance, a nationally recognized dance troupe, uses Park's gymnasium. The Philharmonia of Kansas City calls the Graham Tyler Memorial Chapel home because of its excellent aesthetics and acoustics.

The university also serves as landlord to more than 12 tenants who rent room in its famous limestone caverns, which offer 20 million square feet of space, give or take a few stalagmites. With climate controls supplied by Mother Nature, the caves offer attractively priced office and storage space for a variety of enterprises. Among those is Health South, whose location promotes easy internship opportunities for Park's sports medicine students.

Some might think that the Kansas City Art Institute's influence would be limited to a narrow cultural niche. Au contraire, KCAI faculty members have played a key role in urban renewal efforts north of Union Station that have impacted the city's overall economy and landscape.

KCAI sculptor Jim Leedy is considered the "father" of metamorphosis in Kansas City's trendy Crossroads Art District. Leedy says a primary goal in the Crossroads has been avoiding a "gentrification process" that would put rents beyond the reach of the very artists whose vision has been the driving force for redevelopment

Another partnership at KCAI owes its success to the Executive Service Corps, a group of retired business executives who provide community service. According to KCAI vice president Ron Cattelino, ESC volunteers used their collective business savvy to turn around the fortunes of a school-owned art supply store that was not only selling red ink but sinking in it. The store is now a profit center.

A routine question to ask any nursing student is what hospital he or she is being trained in. Thanks to an innovative program at KU Medical Center, nursing students can now respond more readily to questions about what software they are being trained in. During 2001, the KU School of Nursing teamed up with Cerner to develop a pilot program that familiarizes students with various computer-based clinical information systems--systems that are rapidly replacing paper-based record-keeping.

Nursing Dean Karen Miller believes this type of training may ultimately have a positive effect on the national nursing shortage. "There is no question that IT can assist efficiency at a time when efficiency and accountability are the driving forces in health care."

William Jewell College prof. Walt Rychlewski was instrumental in developing another cooperative program with Cerner that serves not only aspiring nurses but students in computer science, electrical engineering, business and pharmacy.

A course called the "Cerner/Kauffman Software Life Cycle Capstone" is delivered to college seniors by a faculty team representing Cerner and each of four participating institutions, William Jewell, Rockhurst, Baker and UMKC. Weekly sessions are held at Cerner's North Kansas City campus, where, Rychlewski says, students "are introduced to every phase of the software product development cycle that graduates would typically experience in a corporate environment."

The course also emphasizes the business aspects of new product development, including government regulation, marketing, customer support and product maintenance. This entrepreneurial aspect of the capstone helped attract funding and support from the program's namesake, the Kauffman Foundation.

The University of Missouri at Columbia has taken advantage of its strong engineering program to assist a number of large companies with R&D for improved products. For example, the university participates in the "Fluid Power Consortium," a partnership which oversees research on fluid power in hydraulic devices for firms like Caterpillar and Sund-Strand. MU engineers are also providing technical support to companies like Intel, Thermacore and Gortex who are interested in the physics of high heat rate removal.

Esoteric engineering capabilities are at the heart of a new partnership which pairs the University of Kansas at Lawrence with an organization called the Bluetooth Special Interest Group. That group represents hundreds of corporate entities, including such giants as IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Motorola and Nokia.

"Bluetooth" is new type of trademarked technology that permits small electronic devices to communicate with one another at short range without connective cables. Researchers from KU's Information and Telecommunications Technology Center are currently evaluating nearly 20 products to help manu- facturers evaluate the operational and cost effectiveness of bluetooth technology.

ITTC director Dr. Victor S. Frost says bluetooth may someday enable small handheld devices to act as universal "remotes," opening garage doors, printing out documents or programming a VCR.

Homer Erekson, dean of the Bloch School of Business and Public Administration, points with pride to the number and variety of UMKC programs aimed at local entrepreneurs. He notes that UMKC's support center at 4747 Troost houses no fewer than 15 separate entities that foster closer relationships between faculty, students and small business operators.

"The Entrepreneurial Effect," for example, is a four-year-old partnership that pools the resources of four institutions (UMKC, Rockhurst, KU, and the Kauffman Foundation) to enhance the quality of graduate studies in entrepreneurship. The support facility at 4747 Troost also houses mentoring programs, technical assistance centers, and a low cost clinic that provides legal and accounting assistance to start-ups.

Yet another offshoot is SAGE (the Strategic Alliance for Growing Entrepreneurs), a volunteer-driven project that provides free counseling on the quality and content of newly drafted business plans.

One of the newer programs at Johnson County Community College combines a community service focus with an economic development focus. In fact, the Youth and Adult Automotive Training Center (YATTC) is part of a national initiative sponsored by the Ford Motor Company to train disadvantaged youth and adults as entry-level repair technicians. Local co-sponsors include Missouri's Full Employment Council and the Kansas Department of Human Resources.

Ford officials say that while the nation's nursing shortage has attracted more headlines than the mechanic shortage, there is actually a national shortage of mechanics estimated at 60,000 on an industry-wide basis. A $186,000 Ford grant to YATTC is covering JCCC's instructional costs for two years. The company also donated tools, equipment and five new training vehicles.

Speaking of wheels, Kansas City's Business and Technology College (BTC) played a key role in landing Harley Davidson's Kansas City manufacturing plant in 1997. After Harley had narrowed its nationwide search to two locations, college officials say, the prospect of an ongoing partnership with BTC helped sway the decision to choose Kansas City over Louisville.

The facility current employs approximately 900 hourly and salaried workers. During start-up. BTC provided hiring and training assistance to get production lines up and running. BTC personnel continue to handle employee testing for Harley, so that the technical skills of prospective new hires can be fully assessed before interviewing.

"Our company's bottom line is definitely enhanced by this relationship," says Harley's Kansas City general manager Karl Eberle. "Utilizing BTC allows us to focus all of our energies on the core business of making motorcycles."

Finally, if you can't come up with a "partnership" that suits your needs, you can always get into the acquisition game outright. That's what Rockhurst did in 1991 when it purchased National Seminars Inc., now a wholly owned subsidiary.

The training company, headquartered in Overland Park, provides workshops throughout the country on a broad variety of workplace topics. Merger benefits for the company included access to Rockhurst's nonprofit mailing status, as well as the prestige of the Rockhurst name. The university, for its part, was able to expand its role as a recognized leader in continuing education, achieving massive exposure via direct marketing efforts throughout North America that support 7,000 programs yearly.

"This particular union was really a marriage made in heaven," says Rockhurst spokesperson Rosita McCoy. "It allowed the university to fulfill a goal that the Jesuits have been talking about for some 500 years, which is making learning a lifelong endeavor."

Of course a great many of the examples above fulfill this same educational philosophy, while serving as engines of business innovation and catalysts for eco-nomic growth. The significance of Gatorade is that it proves such joint ventures can also be immensely profitable.

For example, Robert Cade's original mixture of water, sodium, potassium, phosphate, sugar and fresh-squeezed lemon juice is now formulated in 18 additional flavors and distributed in nearly 50 countries. Pepsico sells more than $2 billion worth of Gatorade annually; and, over the past 30 years, the Gatorade patent has been worth over $80 million in revenue to the University of Florida.

Considering the financial constraints that face higher education today, what school wouldn't relish the opportunity to follow in similar footsteps? Indeed, what business wouldn't pant and sweat for the rights to drink from a similar fountain of opportunity?

The next Robert Cade may be sitting in a Missouri or Kansas lab-oratory right now, toying with the answer to some new and fascinating $64,000 question.