Trailblazers

With the Summer Olympic Games beginning in Paris, France, later this month, we wanted to draw your attention to one of the greatest female athletes of all time who was also a groundbreaking leader in women’s sports — Mildred “Babe” Didrikson Zaharias.

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Mildred “Babe” Didrikson Zaharias
​(1911-1956)

One of America’s foremost female athletes, Mildred “Babe” Didrikson Zaharias was an Olympic gold medal winner who broke world records in multiple sports and went on to co-found the Ladies Pro Golf Association.

Born on June 26, 1911, in Port Arthur, Texas, she was the sixth of seven children born to Norwegian immigrants Hannah Marie and Ole. She began her amateur sports career playing neighborhood baseball. Her frequent homeruns earned her the nickname “Babe” after baseball legend Babe Ruth.

After reading about the 1928 Olympics, she vowed she would one day compete in Olympic track and field. During the qualifying trials, she made the cut in five events, but women were only allowed to participate in three. At the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles, 21-year-old Babe received a gold medal for the javelin throw, setting a new world record at 143 feet. The next day she set a new world record (breaking her own) of 11.7 seconds in the 80-meter hurdle, winning another gold medal. After a much-debated tie for first in the high jump (at 5’5”), the judges disqualified the technique she used and gave her the silver medal.
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Yet, Babe is best known for her achievements in golf, which she took up in 1933. She initially faced discrimination and resistance as a woman. In 1943, she was awarded amateur status as a golfer, which enabled her to play in a wider range of tournaments. There were limited options for female golfers in the 1940s, so Babe joined with golfer Patty Berg to co-found the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) in 1949.
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In 1953, Babe was diagnosed with cancer and underwent surgery including a colostomy. Three years later, she succumbed to cancer.

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Some interesting facts...

• Her mother took in laundry while her father worked as a seaman and furniture maker.
• She excelled in every sport she tried including baseball and basketball.
• While working at Employers Casualty Company in Dallas, she played on the company basketball team, the Golden Cyclones, from 1929 to 1932.
• At the 1938 Los Angeles Open, she met George Zaharias, a wrestler and part-time actor from Colorado. They married in December 1938, and Zaharias became his wife’s manager.
• Not only did she attract interest in women’s golf, she revolutionized the sport and was known for her powerful drives.
• She became the first American woman to win the British Women’s Amateur Golf Tournament.
• In 1947, she won seventeen gold championships.
• In 1950, the Associated Press voted Babe "Woman Athlete of the Half-Century."
• In her final years as a professional athlete, Babe was reportedly earning $100,000 annually from tournaments and endorsements (equal to $1 million in current dollars).
• She was diagnosed with cancer in 1953, but just three months after surgery, she was back to winning golf tournaments, including the U.S. Women’s Open in Salem, Massachusetts.

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