Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

Flowers, candlelit dinners, and romance: these are probably thing things you think of when Valentine’s Day is mentioned. 

Wish that’s all that came to mind around here. But Feb. 14 also brings up memories of one of the more bizarre press conferences I’ve ever covered.

It was one year ago — Valentine’s Day 2011 — that John Pelphrey started talking about roses and passion and blood and … well, let’s just let the former coach take it from here: 

“Today being Valentine’s Day, I think Valentine’s Day I think of red roses. My wife hasn’t got those red roses yet but she will. I’m certainly very blessed with my kids and my family there. I love my team. I like these guys. They’ve let us coach them. They’ve been resilient. They’ve hung together. When you think of red you think of the Razorbacks and I love the Razorbacks. I am a Razorback. I love this state. The passion and the energy I identify with. I think I have that. I think I’m very, very passionate. When you think of red I think of passion. So today from me there’s a lot of red flowing around.

And…

“Sometimes a warrior just has to kind of lay down on the ground for a minute, just stay there for a second, and have a good bleed. And just bleed."

As I wrote at the time, there was no doubt Pelphrey (now an assistant at Florida, which visits Bud Walton Arena on Feb. 18) approached the press conference with passion.

Happy Valentine’s Day, y’all.