Mildred “Babe” Didrikson Zaharias
Women’s Sports Trailblazer
1911 – 1956 A.D.

Today we frequently see women active in various sports on the television competing in golf, baseball, basketball, track and field and other events. However, not too many years ago there was one woman who starred in all those areas, winning competitions and setting records while doing it. And in her 20 year career Mildred “Babe” Didrikson Zaharias won gold medals in track and field in the 1932 Olympics, became a golf professional and as such won some 10 major championships, as well as competing in other sports events. She was definitely a major figure in the early days of women’s sports, until her career was cut short by a bout of cancer that brought her life to an end in 1956.

Born in June, 1911 in Port Arthur, Texas, Mildred was the child of Norwegian immigrants and from an active sport oriented family background—her mother had been a skilled skater in her home country. In 1915 the family moved to the nearby larger city of Beaumont as the maturing Mildred became adept on some rustic gymnastic equipment that her father had constructed in their backyard. She also played with neighborhood youth baseball teams and that was where she acquired her nickname “Babe,” a label given by the local boys on her team since they thought she batted like Babe Ruth. It may have also been derived from a family endearment from the Norwegian word “baden” which meant “baby.”

Didrikson attended high school in Beaumont, but was not a strong student, so repeated a grade and was thus a year older than many of her classmates.

At the time many companies formed athletic teams from their employees, so in 1930 as her school years ended, Babe went to work for a Dallas insurance company and to play on their semi-professional women’s basketball team. Between 1930 and 1932 as she also worked in the office, Didrikson and the team took a national championship. Then when the company expanded their sports teams into track and field Babe became a one-woman team in a 1932 competition. She placed in seven events, taking first prize in five of them. These successes qualified her for the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles where she broke world records in three events. She was awarded gold medals for the javelin and hurdles events and a silver medal as finisher in the high jump. She won the secondary latter prize because though she cleared the hurdle as did the finisher, she had gone over the bar head first, which was a foul at that time.

After the Olympics events, Babe received a warm welcome as she returned to Texas. Though she tried to resume her career with her company and its basketball team, she was disqualified as an amateur because she had appeared in an automobile advertisement. Since it was during the Great Depression and her family was short of funds Didrikson turned professional to earn what money she could using her fame as a sports celebrity. She spent the next two years touring—doing whatever she could to earn money. As one source put it: “She did a brief stint in vaudeville playing the harmonica and running on a treadmill … she also toured with a billiards exhibition, a men’s and women’s basketball team called Babe Didrikson’s All Americans.” Babe also performed as a singer and even recorded several numbers for the Mercury Records label. Her best selling disc was I Felt a Little Teardrop on one side and Detour on the reverse.

Didrikson also appeared with a well known all-male, bearded baseball road team from a religious group bearing the name House of David. Then in March 1934 she played in professional men’s baseball—pitching some four innings in three Major League spring training exhibition games.

Interestingly, though Babe was known mostly for her athletic skills, she had numerous other talents, including competitive sewing. In fact she not only made many of her own clothes, she also made her golfing outfits. In Texas she won several competitions in sewing.

Then to continue her sports career Babe joined the sport of women’s golf, since it was one of the few sports that allowed women. She decided to become a championship player and after taking lessons she entered her first tournament, then a second where she won the title. However, older and more polished members of the Texas Women’s Golf Association objected to Babe’s continuing playing because of her amateur status, so she resumed her touring and endorsements—this time in golf. She continued to impress audiences with her long drives.

In 1938 at the Los Angeles Open, a men’s Professional Golfers’ Association competition, she qualified and also met George Zaharias, a prominent professional golfer and sports promoter. They married in December, 1938 and he became Babe’s manager.

In 1943 Mrs. Zaharias regained amateur status and played some 13 tournaments for the British Women’s Amateur Championship, the first American to do so. Then she turned golf professional in 1947 and the next year helped to establish the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA). Its purpose, according to one author, was to “…provide the handful of professional women golfers with a tournament circuit.” She was president of the LPGA from 1952 to 1955 as well as being their top money winner.

At that time Mrs. Zaharias was at the top of her game—but then life intervened. In April, 1953 she had surgery to remove cancer. Though her doctors predicted that she could no longer play golf tournaments she defied their prediction by entering a competition three months after the operation. She continued to win, including the U.S. Women’s Open in Massachusetts. In fact in 1954 she won several more tournaments as she continued to support cancer causes, and maintain her buoyant public image. To recognize her achievement the Golf Writers of America honored her with the Ben Hogan Trophy as the comeback player of the year.

However, in June, 1955 she re-entered a Galveston hospital for further diagnosis and treatment. But despite the best of medical treatment doctors could not halt the progress of the growing cancer. Sadly Babe spent the rest of her last 15 months of life in the hospital as she and her husband set up a fund under her name to finance a clinic at the hospital. In actuality, during her final years Mrs. Zaharias was noted not just for her athletic skills, but also for using her public image to promote cancer treatment. This was important especially at a time when many Americans either refused or were reluctant to seek diagnosis or treatment for cancer.

Babe Didrikson Zaharias passed away at the hospital on Sept. 27, 1956 at age 45, though she was still a high-ranked golfer. Even  though she was gone, the honors and recognitions were just beginning. A museum in her name opened in 1976 in Beaumont, there was issued in 1981 a U.S. Postage Stamp, she was inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame and in 2021 she posthumously received a Presidential Medal of Freedom.

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Anne Adams is a retired church staffer. She lives in East Texas and has an historical column for a local newspaper. She has published in Christian and secular publications for more than 40 years.

References:
Wikipedia
Texas State Historical Association
Women’s History