Babe Zaharias

Babe Zaharias was a Track and Field Olympic Gold Medallist & World Record Holder, US Women’s and British Ladies Amateur Golf Champion, 10-times a Ladies Professional Golf Association major winner (including a Grand Slam), Golf Hall of Fame inductee…and much much more.

‘Babe’ is Born

Mildred Ella Didriksen was born on 26th June 1911 in Port Arthur Texas. Her parents, Ole and Hannah Didriksen were Norwegian but had emigrated to the United States.

So how did Mildred become known as Babe?

During a childhood baseball game, she once hit 5 home runs and claimed that as a consequence she attained the nickname of “Babe” (after the Baseball legend Babe Ruth). However, since she was a toddler, her mother had always called her “Bebe”. Also, at some point, she changed the spelling of her surname from Didriksen to Didrikson.

Whatever the facts or fiction of the back story, from an early age she was known as Babe Didrikson.

Babe was an alumna of Beaumont High School, Beaumont, Texas. Never strong academically, she eventually dropped out of school without graduating. Her real passion and exceptional talents were all centred around a multitude of sports and she knew that her ambition and purpose in life was to be:

‘The greatest athlete that ever lived’

Track and Field Phenomena

In the United States during the 1920s and the 1930s, women’s sports were in the main sponsored, either by companies and organisations or by the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU).

In 1930, Babe was talent-spotted by the Employers Casualty Company (ECC), based in Dallas whilst playing basketball at High School. So that she did not lose her amateur status, Babe was “employed” as a secretary on a salary of $75 per month to effectively play for the ‘Golden Cyclones’, the ECC basketball team.

Not long after joining ECC, Babe also took up ‘Track and Field’. In 1932, Babe represented the ECC at the AAU championships, an event which also served as a qualifier for the 1932 Olympics.

In fact, she was the only ECC participant in this prestigious team event!! Despite competing against other teams who fielded teams of 20+, she won 6 of the 8 events in which she competed, set world records in 4 of these events and secured the AAU Championships on her own for the ECC!!

Several esteemed commentators believe this to have been the greatest achievement in the history of elite-level athletics.

Games of the Olympiad

In 1932, the 10th ‘Games of the Olympiad’ were held in Los Angeles, California during the Great Depression and thus many athletes and countries were not in a position to fund participation.

Looking back, it is very difficult to comprehend that at the time there was a much-heated debate on whether women should actually participate at the Olympics. Thankfully, this did not deter Babe.

She actually qualified for five events but at that time women were only permitted to compete in a maximum of three events, so she entered the Javelin, Hurdles and the High Jump (it was not until 1964 and the Tokyo Olympics that the women’s pentathlon was contested).

She won the Javelin Gold medal, with a winning throw of 43.69 metres, which at that time was a world record.

She also won gold in the 80 metres hurdles in a (then) world record time of 11.7 seconds.

In the women’s high jump, she tied first with compatriot Jean Shiley in a “jump off”, where both of them broke the world record. However, Babe was demoted to the Silver medal position when her western roll high jumping technique, which had never been questioned or challenged at any time throughout the competition, was ruled as diving and thus ineligible!!

She was named Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year and to this day remains the only male or female track and field athlete to have won individual Olympic medals in running, throwing and jumping events.

Personal Bests

To complete this phase of Babe’s sporting life, her personal bests in Track and Field were as follows:

Track & Field Event		Personal Best
100m		12.3s
200m		25.6s
80m Hurdles		11.7s
Discus		42.06m
Shot Put		12.04m
High Jump		1.65m
Long Jump		5.70m
Javelin		43.69m

Post Olympics

Despite being the ‘golden girl’ of American Athletics, the harsh reality was that as a female athlete based in a country whose economy was mired in the great depression of the 1930s, there were minimal opportunities to generate any income from her fame whilst retaining her amateur status.

Thus late in 1932, she became a ‘professional celebrity/performer’ rather than a ‘professional athlete’ to earn money without jeopardising her status as an amateur athlete.

This included promoting cars for the Chrysler Corporation at the Detroit Automobile Show and making appearances at various theatres on the RKO vaudeville circuit, where she told jokes, performed comedy sketches and played the harmonica!!

It was reported that she was earning in the region of $2500 per week from these shows, a small fortune in the 1930s.

Over the following years, in addition to performing vaudeville, she also toured the United States playing basketball for the ‘Babe Didrikson’s All-Americans’ team and baseball for the ‘House of David’ team!!

Golfing Adventure Begins

Although she had previously dabbled with golf it was not until Grantland Rice, the famous American sportswriter, invited her to play a round of golf the day after the high jump at the 1932 Olympics!!

Remarkably, or maybe not given her limitless sporting talents and ability, she teamed up with Rice to win a better ball match against two journalists, securing victory on the 18th!!

Early in 1933, she started to take the game seriously by having daily golf lessons with Golf Professional Stan Kertes, who was based in California.

Rumour has it she practised every day for six months until her savings were all gone, hutting upwards of one thousand golf balls a day.

This was yet another example of her dedication and hard work to try and be the best in whatever sport she attempted.

Amateur Status Revoked

In 1934 she competed in the Texas Invitational (Match Play) Tournament. Although she did not win she was the leading qualifier with a round of 77. However, what is remembered most is that despite being an Olympic heroine the previous year, Babe started to face elitism at some of the golf and country clubs.

However, the following year she entered and won the prestigious Women’s Texas Amateur Championship, winning the final by a margin of 2&1. Sadly, she was unable to enjoy the glory of this triumph for very long as her Amateur status was revoked.

This was as a consequence of a petition which highlighted that Babe had participated in (professional) sporting exhibitions and thus should be deemed a professional athlete. This challenge to her status as an amateur golfer was presented to and accepted by the US Golf Asociation (USGA).

A ladies professional golf tour did not exist at that time and there were very few tournaments for women professional golfers, and so Babe embarked on Exhibition tours and playing in celebrity pro-ams.

Competing against Male Golfers

It was during one of these Exhibition tours that Babe caught the attention of male golfers as she was hitting the ball over 260 yards with her drives. Thus, she entered the 1938 Los Angeles Open, a USPGA Tournament (something that was not attempted by a woman golfer for another 60 years!!)

Babe missed the 36-hole cut after scoring 81 and 84. However, she did make the cut in the 1945 renewal of the Los Angeles Open.

To this day she is the only woman to have made the cut in a USPGA tournament. She also made the cut at the Pheonix and the Tuscon Opens (at the latter she finished 33rd after rounds of 77-72-75-80). At both Los Angeles and Tuscon she had to play in 36-hole qualifying events as opposed to receiving a tournament exemption.

All of these achievements further demonstrated her talents both as a brilliant golfer and an extraordinary sportswoman.

Babe attempted, albeit unsuccessfully, to qualify for the 1948 US Open. The USGA rejected her application by stating that ‘The event was intended to be open to men only’!!

George Zaharias

Theodore Vetoyanis was a very well-known Professional Wrestler in America during the 1930s. He fought under the stage name of George Zaharias, the “Crying Greek”. He invariably played the role of the villain during his many bouts.

Early in 1938, he was paired with Babe at a charity golf event in Los Angeles and 11 months later they married.

He retired from wrestling to become Babe’s full-time manager and advisor. With support from George, Babe applied to have her Amateur status reinstated, which was finally granted by the USGA in 1943.

Whilst awaiting a return to the Amateur ranks, she won the 1940 Western Open. This was the first of the ten major championships she was to eventually win during her glittering golfing career.

Amateur Success

With her status as an Amateur finally reinstated, Babe won the 1946 US Women’s Amateur Championship and the 1947 British Ladies Amateur Championship.

In fact, she was the first golfer from the United States to win the prestigious British Ladies Amateur Championship (for the record she won the final 5&4, with the event being played at Gullane Golf Club, Scotland).

Babe won an incredible 17 consecutive tournaments from April 1946 to August 1947, an achievement which will probably never be surpassed.

She also won a further two Women’s Western Opens, in 1944 and 1945.

Her achievements were again recognised by Associated Press, who named her Female Athlete of the Year in 1945, 1946 and 1947 (but this time for golf rather than athletics).

Grand Slam

In 1947, Babe joined the Profesional ranks (but this time of her own choosing) and the following year she won her first US Women’s Open.

In 1950, a group of 13  players, including Babe Zaharias, founded the Ladies Profesional Golf Association (LPGA), which is now the oldest continuing women’s professional sports organization in the United States. The rationale was to increase the number of prize-money tournaments and thus provide a platform for more women to earn a living from professional golf.

In the same year, Babe completed the ladies golfing Grand Slam which at that time comprised of the US Open, the Titleholders Championship and the Women’s Western Open.

Final Chapter

Over the next few years, Babe continued to dominate the LPGA Tour. However, after winning the inaugural Babe Zaharias Open in 1953 which was played in her home town of Beaumont, she was diagnosed with cancer of the colon. After undergoing surgery, she was back playing tournament golf after only 4 months of recovery. Incredible.

In 1954, Babe won her third US Open, which was also her tenth and a final major championship. Babe’s winning margin was an astonishing 12 strokes, one of her many records that may never be broken.

She was unable to defend the title the following year due to back surgery, which also discovered that cancer had returned. Even though her 1955 season was limited to only eight events, she won her final two golf tournaments.

Babe used her fame to be a spokesperson for the American Cancer Society for which she was honoured by the US President Dwight Eisenhower.

Babe Zaharias sadly died on 27th September 1956 aged 45.

Awards

In addition to the awards that have already been mentioned, Babe received many other notable awards in recognition of her unique sporting talents and achievements, including:

• Inducted to the Golf Hall of Fame in 1951.
• Bob Jones Award in recognition of distinguished sportsmanship, the highest honour that is given by the USGA (awarded posthumously in 1957).
• Inducted to the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 1976.
• In 2000, named by Sports Illustrated as the second-best athlete of all time (behind Jackie Joyner-Kersee).