Pep talks
Ellenson was hugely popular among the Gators players, and served as the team's chief motivational speaker during the 1960s and beyond.
After the Gators struggled to a 1–2 record to begin the 1962 season, Ellenson wrote a letter to each member of the team detailing his War World II experiences and encouraging them to play harder: "You'll be a better man for it, and the next adversity won't be so tough." Players and coaches credit the letter for inspiring the team to beat several tough opponents and end the season with a bowl victory.
[9]
Ellenson's pep talk before the Gators' 1963 game against
Alabama inspired Gators lineman
Jack Katz to smash his helmet through a locker room blackboard, and inspired the team to upset the Crimson Tide 10–6, handing Alabama coach
Bear Bryant his first of only two career losses in Tuscaloosa.
[10]
When
Buster Bishop, the coach of the
Florida Gators men's golf team, fell ill immediately before the 1968 NCAA national tournament, Ellenson accompanied the golfers to the tournament in
Las Cruces, New Mexico in his place. He delivered a memorable pep talk to the team using his favorite "positive molecules" metaphor, and the Gators upset the top-ranked Houston Cougars to win the NCAA tournament—the first national championship, in any sport, won by University of Florida athletes.
[11]
Even after he left the coaching profession in 1970, Ellenson was still called upon to deliver motivational pregame speeches. In
1986, then-Gators coach
Galen Hall invited Ellenson to give a pregame talk before the 3–4 Gators faced the 7–0 and 5th-ranked
Auburn Tigers. Florida won 18–17 in what is still considered one of the greatest games in
Florida Field history.
[12]
Steve Spurrier had been the Gators' award-winning quarterback while Ellenson was an assistant coach in the 1960s. When Spurrier was the head coach at
Duke in the late 1980s, he twice had Ellenson give pep talks to his team before traditional rivalry games. Duke won on both occasions.
[13] When Spurrier returned to his alma mater in 1990 to become the Gators' head coach, he again invited Ellenson to deliver inspirational talks before big games.
[14] The Gators went 4–0 in those contests.
[14][15]
I thought you were joking!
s you see up there.
