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A Mullet, Lisa, And A Coach's Smart Hairstyle

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By STEVE OTTO

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 29, 2008

Today would have been Pat Whitaker Sr.'s 104th birthday, so it is appropriate to tie the very loose connection he has to Barry Melrose, the new coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Even if you don't happen to be an avid hockey fan, although it's difficult to see why any Floridian would not be, you must have seen Melrose's picture on our front page last week. Judging from the stories I've read about him, he is known not so much for his hockey coaching skills, considerable though we hope they might be, as for his mullet.

A mullet in this sense is a hairstyle. It features hair trimmed short on the top and sides but allowed to flow out in back. To tell you the truth, it looks a little weird. You pretty much have to be either a country singer, a baseball pitcher or a hockey coach to pull it off. Otherwise, people just think you need a haircut.

Nobody seems too clear on why this particular style is called a mullet. It's my guess that most people who aren't from around here have never even seen a mullet - the fish, that is. In fact, you would think the more expensive hair salons would start offering something called "The Grouper" and charge twice as much.

Until recently, I didn't know a mullet was something that could be on your head. I always thought it was a fish you ate. A little tip: The best mullet is smoked (not the one on your head but the one you eat). The best smoked mullet is at Ted Peters, a small place in Pasadena right before you go over the bridge to the Pinellas beaches. Willies in Valrico also knows how to smoke a mullet.

Off To See The Gizzard

That brings me back to Pat Whitaker Sr., who was born on this date in 1894 in Franklin, Ga. Whitaker went to work for a local congressman and one day found himself in Tampa, waiting for a boat to Cuba, where they were conducting business. Whitaker fell in love with Tampa and especially Ybor City and made a decision to come back and practice law.

The year was 1916 and six young men had been arrested for fishing out of season. They didn't have any money, so they approached the young lawyer and promised him a fish dinner if he would represent them in court. Whitaker accepted the case and the meal. It was while he was watching the men clean the fish he noticed the mullet they were gutting had gizzards. The men explained that mullet eat grass at the bottom and need gizzards to filter sand out of their systems.

Research confirmed that fish do not have gizzards, so Whitaker went to court and suggested to the judge that mullet might, in fact, be birds. "Whales live in the water but they aren't fish," he said. "Beavers live in the water and they aren't fish."

The judge, apparently not wanting to run afoul of the law, ruled in Whitaker's favor. Later, the Florida Legislature was forced to pass more laws protecting the mullet, no matter what it was.

A Fish Named Lisa

As for Lisa, well, Lisa is what mullet is known as in Spanish. A couple of decades ago, the seafood marketing people figured people weren't buying mullet because they were called mullet. They said they would begin marketing the fish (or fowl) as Lisa, which fortunately never really caught on.

I imagine if you told Melrose he looked good in his Lisa hairdo you might end up with a hockey puck in your mouth.

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