Shipley Buys Hog House

Former University of Arkansas head basketball coach John Pelphrey, now an assistant at the University of Florida, absorbed a loss before the season even started.

Pelphrey, who in 2008 paid $2.04 million for the 5,693-SF palace of a home at 5001 E. Maywood Road in Fayetteville, sold it for $1.74 million late last month. The roughly $300,000 loss came just a few days before the Gators’ Nov. 3 exhibition game against Catholic University.

The new owner, meanwhile, is Carl H. Shipley II, who also owns Shipley Motor Equipment Co. SME is a third-generation Mack truck dealer headquartered in Lowell. SME also has dealerships in Fort Smith and Pottsville.

Shipley said some of the more notable features of the house include a basketball court — with a Razorback logo — in the backyard, a swimming pool, a sizable theater room and an exercise room with a mural that includes the logos of the schools at which Pelphrey has coached.

When told one Whispers staffer said he must either be a big Hog fan or a big house fan, Shipley laughed.

“Probably a little bit of both,” he said. “It’s just a happy house.”