Babe Zaharias

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Name	Babe Didrikson Zaharias
Fullname	Mildred Ella Didrikson Zaharias
Nickname	Babe
Birth date	June 26, 1911
Birth place	Port Arthur, Texas, USA
Death date	September 27, 1956
Death place	Galveston, Texas, USA
Height
Nationality
Spouse	George Zaharias
Yearpro	1947
Retired	1956
Extour	LPGA Tour(joined 1950, its founding)
Prowins	48
Lpgawins	41
Otherwins	7
Majorwins	10
Western	Won: 1940, 1944, 1945, 1950
Titleholders	Won: 1947, 1950, 1952
Wusopen	Won: 1948, 1950, 1954
Wghofid	1125
Wghofyear	1951
Award1	LPGA TourMoney Winner
Year1	1950, 1951
Award2	LPGA Vare Trophy
Year2	1954
Award3	Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year
Year3	1945, 1946, 1947, 1950, 1954
Awardssection

Mildred Ella "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias (June 26, 1911 – September 27, 1956) was an American athlete who achieved outstanding success in golf, basketball, and track and field. She was named the 10th Greatest North American Athlete of the 20th Century by ESPN, and the 9th Greatest Athlete of the 20th Century by the Associated Press.

Biography

Mildred Ella Didrikson was the sixth of seven children born in the coastal oil city of Port Arthur in southeastern Texas. Her mother, Hannah, and her father, Ole, were immigrants from Norway. Three of her seven siblings were born in Norway, and the other three were born in Port Arthur. She later changed the spelling of her surname from Didriksen to Didrikson. Didrikson moved to Beaumont when she was four years of age. The family resided at 850 Doucette. She always claimed to have acquired the nickname "Babe" (after Babe Ruth) upon hitting five home runs in a childhood baseball game, but she was called "Baby" as a toddler.

Though best known for her athletic gifts, Didrikson had many talents and was a competitor in even the most domestic of occupations: sewing. An excellent seamstress, she made many of the clothes she wore, including her golfing outfits. She claimed to have won the sewing championship at the 1931 State Fair of Texas in Dallas, but in reality won the South Texas State Fair in Beaumont, embellishing the story many years later in 1953. In 1929, Didrikson graduated from Beaumont High School but did not attend college. She was a singer and a harmonica player. She recorded several songs on the Mercury Records label. Her biggest seller was "I Felt a Little Teardrop" with "Detour" on the flip side.

Already famous as Babe Didrikson, she married George Zaharias (1908–1984), a professional wrestler, in St. Louis, Missouri, on December 23, 1938. Thereafter, she was largely known as Babe Zaharias. The couple met while playing golf. George Zaharias, a Greek American, was a native of Pueblo, Colorado. Called the "Crying Greek from Cripple Creek," Zaharias also did some part-time acting. The Zahariases had no children and were rebuffed by authorities when they sought to adopt.

adjacent to her museum.]]

Athletic achievements

Didrikson gained world fame in track and field and All-American status in basketball. She played organized baseball and softball and was an expert diver, roller-skater and bowler. She won two gold medals and one silver medal for track and field in the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics.

AAU champion

Didrikson's first job after high school was a secretary, for the Employers Casualty Insurance Company of Dallas, though she was employed so that she could play basketball as an amateur on the company's "industrial team", the Golden Cyclones, in competition governed by the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU). Despite leading the team to an AAU Basketball Championship in 1931, Didrikson first achieved wider attention as a track and field athlete.

Representing her company in the 1932 AAU Championships, she competed in eight out of ten events, winning five outright, and tying for first in a sixth. In the process, she set five world records in the javelin throw, 80-meter hurdles, high jump and baseball throw in a single afternoon. Didrikson's performances were enough to win the team championship, despite her being the only member of her team.

Post-Olympics

In the following years, she performed on the vaudeville circuit, travelled with teams like Babe Didrikson's All-Americans basketball team and the bearded House of David (commune) team. Didrikson was also a competitive pocket billiards (pool) player, though not a champion. She was noted in the January 1933 press for playing (and badly losing) a multi-day straight pool match in New York City against famed female Ruth McGinnis.

Golf

By 1935, she began to play golf, a latecomer to the sport by which she would become the most famous. Shortly thereafter, despite the brevity of her experience, she was denied amateur status, and so in January 1938, she competed in the Los Angeles Open, a men's PGA (Professional Golfers' Association) tournament, a feat no other woman would even try until Annika Sörenstam, Suzy Whaley, and Michelle Wie almost six decades later. She shot 81 strokes and 84 strokes, and she missed the cut. In the tournament, she was teamed with George Zaharias. They were married eleven months later, and lived in Tampa on the premises of a golf course that they purchased in 1951.

Babe went on to become America's first female golf celebrity and the leading player of the 1940s and early 1950s. If she wanted to gain back her amateur status she would have to not play any other sports for three years. After gaining back her amateur status in 1942, she won the 1946-47 United States Women's Amateur Golf Championships, as well as the 1947 British Ladies Amateur Golf Championship – the first American to do so – and three Women's Western Open victories. Having formally turned professional in 1947, she dominated the Women's Professional Golf Association and later the Ladies Professional Golf Association, of which she was a founding member. Serious illness ended her career in the mid-1950s.

Zaharias even won a tournament named after her, the Babe Zaharias Open of Beaumont, Texas. She won the 1947 Titleholders Championship and the 1948 U.S. Women's Open for her fourth and fifth major championships. She won 17 straight women's amateur victories, a feat never equaled by anyone, including Tiger Woods. By 1950, she had won every golf title available. Totaling both her amateur and professional victories, Zaharias won a total of 82 golf tournaments.

Charles McGrath of The New York Times wrote of Zaharias, "Except perhaps for Arnold Palmer, no golfer has ever been more beloved by the gallery".

Against the men

While Zaharias missed the cut in a PGA tour event during her first year of tournament golf, later as she became more experienced she made the cut in every PGA tour event she entered. In 1945, Zaharias played in three PGA tournaments. She shot 76-81 to make the two-day cut at the Los Angeles Open (missed the three-day cut after a 79), making her the first (and currently only) woman in history to make the cut in a regular PGA tour event. She continued her cut streak at the Phoenix Open, where she shot 77-72-75-80 finishing in 33rd place. At the Tucson Open she shot 307 and finished tied for 42nd. Unlike other female golfers competing in men's events, she got into the Phoenix and Tucson opens through 36-hole qualifiers, as opposed to a sponsor's exemption.

Last years

Zaharias had her greatest year in 1950 when she completed the Grand Slam of the three women's majors of the day, the U.S. Open, the Titleholders Championship, and the Women's Western Open, in addition to leading the money list. That year, she became the fastest LPGA golfer to ever reach 10 wins, doing so in one year and 20 days, a record still standing. She was the leading money-winner again in 1951, and in 1952 took another major with a Titleholders victory, but illness prevented her from playing a full schedule in 1952-53. However, this did not stop her from also becoming the fastest player to reach 20 wins (two years and four months).

Babe Didrickson Zaharias was diagnosed with colon cancer in 1953, and even after undergoing cancer surgery, she made a comeback in 1954. She took the Vare Trophy for lowest scoring average, her only win of that trophy, and her 10th and final major with a U.S. Women's Open championship, one month after the cancer surgery. With this win, she became the second-oldest woman to ever win a major LPGA championship tournament (behind Fay Crocker). Babe Zaharias now stands third to Crocker and Sherri Steinhauer. These wins made her the fastest player to reach 30 wins (five years and 22 days).

Her colon cancer recurred in 1955, and limited her schedule to eight golfing events that season. But she managed her last two wins in competitive golf. The cancer was fatal, and Zaharias died at the John Sealy Hospital in Galveston, Texas. At the time of her death, at age forty-five, she was still a top-ranked female golfer. She and her husband had established the Babe Zaharias Fund to support cancer clinics. "The Babe" is buried at the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Beaumont.

Cultural impact

welcoming center.]] Zaharias broke the accepted models of femininity in her time, including the accepted models of female athleticism. Although just 5'5" tall, she was physically strong and socially straightforward about her strength. Although a sports hero to many, she was also derided for her "manliness". Her exploits were referenced by the irreverent comedy program Family Guy, in which her name and deeds were used as part of an "extended" version to the theme of the television series Maude. Zaharias was also mentioned on the Simpsons episode, "The Devil Wears Nada," as the costume Marge Simpson wears when she poses for a racy charity calendar.

Zaharias penned an autobiography This Life I've led. It is no longer in print but is available in many libraries.

In 1975, the film Babe, based on Zaharias' life, was released, with Susan Clark playing the lead role. Alex Karras played George Zaharias. Clark and Karras met while making the picture and later married.

In the media

Zaharias appeared as a guest on the ABC reality show, The Comeback Story (1953-1954), explaining her attempts to battle colon cancer, which thereafter still claimed her life.

In 1952, she appeared in the Spencer Tracy-Katharine Hepburn film Pat and Mike.

In 2007, Carolyn Gage began work on Babe, a full-chorus, full-orchestra musical about Zaharias.

In June 2011, Little, Brown is scheduled to publish a major biography of Zaharias, Wonder Girl, by author Don Van Natta, Jr..

Amateur wins

This list is probably incomplete:

1947 North and South Women's Amateur Golf Championship, British Ladies Amateur Golf Championship

Professional wins

LPGA Tour wins (41)

1940 (1) Women's Western Open (as an amateur)

1944 (1) Women's Western Open (as an amateur)

1945 (1) Women's Western Open (as an amateur)

1947 (2) Tampa Open, Titleholders Championship (as an amateur)

1948 (3) All American Open, World Championship, U.S. Women's Open

1949 (2) World Championship, Eastern Open

1950 (8) Titleholders Championship, Pebble Beach Weathervane, Cleveland Weathervane, 144 Hole Weathervane, Women's Western Open, All American Open, World Championship, U.S. Women's Open

1951 (9) Ponte Verde Beach Women's Open, Tampa Women's Open, Lakewood Weathervane, Richmond Women's Open, Valley Open, Meridian Hills Weathervane, All American Open, World Championship, Women's Texas Open

1952 (5) Miami Weathervane, Titleholders Championship, Bakersfield Open (tied with Marlene Hagge, Betty Jameson and Betsy Rawls), Fresno Open, Women's Texas Open

1953 (2) Sarasota Open, Babe Zaharias Open

1954 (5) Serbin Open, Sarasota Open, Damon Runyan Cancer Fund Tournament, U.S. Women's Open, All American Open

1955 (2) Tampa Open, Peach Blossom Open

LPGA Majors are shown in bold.

Other wins

1940 Women's Texas Open

1945 Women's Texas Open

1946 All American Open, Women's Texas Open

1947 Hardscrabble Open

1951 Orlando Florida 2-Ball (with George Bolesta)

1952 Orlando Mixed (with Al Besselink)

Major championships

Wins (10)

{|class="sortable wikitable" !Year!!Championship!!Winning Score!!Margin!!Runner-up |-bgcolor="#FFCC99" | 1940 ||Women's Western Open ||colspan=2 align=center|5 & 4|| Mrs. Russell Mann |-bgcolor="#FFCC99" | 1944 ||Women's Western Open ||colspan=2 align=center|7 & 5|| Dorothy Germain (a) |-bgcolor="#FFCC99" | 1945 ||Women's Western Open ||colspan=2 align=center|4 & 2|| Dorothy Germain (a) |-bgcolor="#FFFF99" | 1947 ||Titleholders Championship ||+4 (78-81-71-74=304||5 strokes || Dorothy Kirby (a) |-bgcolor="#FBCEB1" | 1948 ||U.S. Women's Open ||E (75-72-75-78=300)||8 strokes|| Betty Hicks |-bgcolor="#FFFF99" | 1950 ||Titleholders Championship ||+10 (72-78-73-75=298)||8 strokes|| Claire Doran (a) |-bgcolor="#FBCEB1" | 1950 ||U.S. Women's Open ||−9 (75-76-70-70=291)||9 strokes|| Betsy Rawls (a) |-bgcolor="#FFCC99" | 1950 ||Women's Western Open ||colspan=2 align=center|5 & 3|| Peggy Kirk |-bgcolor="#FFFF99" | 1952 ||Titleholders Championship ||+11 (74-73-73-79=299)||7 strokes || Betsy Rawls |-bgcolor="#FBCEB1" | 1954 ||U.S. Women's Open ||+3 (72-71-73-75=291)||12 strokes|| Betty Hicks |}

See also

Golfers with most LPGA Tour wins

Golfers with most LPGA major championship wins

Notes and references

Bibliography

External links

Babe, a 1975 TV movie biography, at The Internet Movie Database

Babe Didrikson Zaharias Photos held by the Library of Congress.

Babe Didrikson Zaharias LPGA biography

Babe Didrikson Zaharias biography at Golf.about.com

Category:1911 births Category:1956 deaths Category:American autobiographers Category:American basketball players Category:American female golfers Category:American high jumpers Category:American hurdlers Category:American people of Norwegian descent Category:Athletes (track and field) at the 1932 Summer Olympics Category:Basketball players from Texas Category:Cancer deaths in Texas Category:Deaths from colorectal cancer Category:Javelin throwers Category:LPGA Tour golfers Category:World Golf Hall of Fame inductees Category:Olympic gold medalists for the United States Category:Olympic silver medalists for the United States Category:Olympic track and field athletes of the United States Category:People from Beaumont, Texas Category:People from Dallas, Texas Category:People from Port Arthur, Texas Category:Sportspeople of multiple sports Category:Winners of ladies' major amateur golf championships Category:Winners of LPGA major golf championships Category:Olympic medalists in athletics (track and field)