Mildred Babe Didrikson was born in 1913 in Port Arthur, Texas of Norwegian immigrant parents but the family soon moved to nearby Beaumont where she was raised. The 'Babe', (feminine version), was still totally unknown in the world of women's sports until early in the year of 1932. She was 18 years old and working as a typist at a Dallas insurance company when the firm's management, seeking a little extra advertisement, asked her to represent them at the AAU Track and Field Championships which were being held in a couple of weeks in Evanston, Illinois.
Babe consented and made the trip to Evanston where she signed up to compete in eight different and astonishingly varied track and field events. During the huge track-meets' opening ceremonies Babe created a sensation by marching along all by herself as a one-member team in amongst all the large squads sent by schools and different organizations from around the country. Three hours later this unknown teenage girl had captured the 1st place Team Trophy by winning 6 of the events she'd entered. The 2nd place Team Trophy that year went to the University of Illinois with their 22-woman team.
After welcoming her back to her job in Dallas she wasn't giving any time to rest on her laurels for her employers then talked Babe into trying out for the 1932 Summer Olympics which were to begin that summer in Los Angeles. The highly competitive girl was a little miffed at learning she would be restricted to competing in just three events but she went ahead and quickly qualified for the U. S. team and made the trip. Making the most of what they had allowed her, Babe set four records in her three contests. She placed 1st in the javelin throw, and set an Olympic record, then she placed 1st in the 80 meter low-hurdles, and set Olympic and world records in that event. She also broke the Olympic record in the high jump and seemingly won her third gold medal but the judges made a late ruling and disqualified her jump as illegal. The very next Olympics games would find her new 'rolling flip' method of jumping legalized.
Babe went back home now determined to make a living in sports while engaged in doing something she truely loved. But she soon found that at that time the only women's sport that paid any kind of money at all was the women's golf tour or the LPGA. She soon mastered that game completely dominating the ladie's circuit for several years. She became the 1930's and 40's female-version of nowadays 'Tiger Woods'. In the meantime she did get married in 1938 to a man of Greek descent thereby acquiring her surname of Zaharias. Babe found married life to be okay but her career was becoming a little boring. Winning tournaments against her female peers was almost too easy for none of them could come close to giving her a serious challenge. Eventually her competitive spirit caused her to try playing with the 'Big Boys' by entering one of the regular men's PGA tournaments.
Although she had already won 31 tournaments, Babe was still relatively unknown when she entered a pro-am event in California. The partner she'd drawn was the already very famous Byron Nelson and he happened to show up late at the very first tee that morning. Nelson was known to be a very outspoken person himself but he was startled when Babe sidled up beside him while he was taking a few warm-up swings and greeting him loudly saying, "You're my partner."
"Suits me just fine", Byron answered without looking at her.
He was just about to slam his driver into his golf-ball when she again interrupted by stating, "Now listen, they're only giving me four strokes. I should have more. But I can shoot this track in 70 so that gives us 66. If you can give me any help at all, we can win this tournament."
The man who, the previous year, had won 11 consecutive PGA tour events and 18 titles overall, promptly duffed his first drive of the day and then rolled his eyes. But the uncommonly talented pair did win the tournament.
During her athletic career Babe tried almost everything to coax a living out of sports and while trying she appeared in places where no woman had ever gone before. She had a stint touring as the only non-male, and non-bearded, member of 'The House of David' baseball team. She pitched one scoreless inning for the Philadelphia A's against St. Louis. A later vaudville act had her playing the harmonica while demonstrating her running stride on a treadmill.
Then in 1953 she was diagnosed with cancer and underwent a colostomy. But the very next year she came back and won the ladie's U.S. open by 12 strokes. Meanwhile the disease was still ravaging her body and finally took her life in 1956 when she was only 42 years old.
Babe Didrikson Zaharias was voted by the Associated Press as the world's greatest female athlete for the period from 1900-1950. She is also one of the very few women enshrined in the National Track and Field Hall of Fame in Indianapolis, Indiana.
She truely deserves to be remembered as more than just a footnote.
