Mildred "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias
It was at the suggestion of legendary sportswriter Grantland Rice that Mildred Didrikson started playing golf in 1935, three years after her remarkable performance at the Los Angeles Olympic Games where she won two gold medals and a silver, breaking world records in the javelin throw and the 80-meter hurdles. Mildred was nicknamed Babe in her youth, after Babe Ruth, by playmates when she hit five home runs in one game. She won the 1935 River Crest International in Fort Worth. Subsequently, she was declared a professional due to her baseball and basketball earnings.
Married to professional wrestler George Zaharias in 1938, the Babe became American’s greatest women athlete, excelling in tennis, swimming, diving, roller-skating, bowling and softball.
In January 1938, she competed in the Los Angeles Open, a PGA (Professional Golfers' Association) tournament. No other woman competed against men in this tournament until Annika Sörenstam, Suzy Whaley, Michelle Wie and Brittany Lincicome almost six decades later.
After not competing professionally for three years in any sport, Zaharias regained her amateur status for a time and won the 1946 U.S. Women's Amateur and the 1947 British Ladies Amateur – the first American to do so – and three Women's Western Opens.
Zaharias then formally turned professional in golf 1947. She dominated the Women's Professional Golf Association and later the Ladies Professional Golf Association. She was a founding member of the Ladies Professional Golf Association, in 1950.
She won 31 tournaments, including five majors. In 1953, she was stricken with cancer and underwent surgery. She recovered enough by 1954 to win again.
Her colon cancer recurred in 1955. Despite her limited schedule of eight golfing events that season, Zaharias won her last two tournaments in competitive golf. On September 27, 1956, Zaharias died of her illness at the age of forty-five at the John Sealy Hospital in Galveston, Texas.
She won 17 straight women's amateur events - a feat that has not been equaled or beat. By 1950, she had won every golf title available. Totaling both her amateur and professional victories, Zaharias won a total of 82 golf tournaments.
Additional distinctions and honors:
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.
The Babe Didrikson Zaharias Museum in Beaumont is also one of the city's welcoming centers.
Zaharias broke the accepted models of femininity in her time, including the accepted models of female athleticism. Standing 5 ft 7 in (1.70 m) tall and weighing 115 lb (52 kg), Zaharias was physically strong and socially straightforward about her strength. Although a sports hero to many, she was also derided for her "manliness".
Zaharias was inducted into the LPGA Hall of Fame in 1951 (now part of the World Golf Hall of Fame). In 1957, she posthumously received the Bob Jones Award, the highest honor given by the United States Golf Association in recognition of distinguished sportsmanship in golf. It was accepted by her husband George, four months after her death. She was one of six initial inductees into the LPGA Hall of Fame at its inception in 1977.
Zaharias has a museum dedicated to her in Beaumont, Texas the Babe Didrikson Zaharias Museum. Several golf courses are named after her. A Tampa, Florida golf course that she and her husband owned, the Babe Zaharias Golf Course, was given landmark status.
In 1976, Zaharias was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.
In 1981, the U.S. Postal Service issued an 18 cent stamp commemorating Zaharias.
On January 7, 2021, Zaharias was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Donald J. Trump.[40]
Birthplace: Port Arthur, Texas
Born: June 26, 1914
Died: September 27, 1956