Babe Didrikson Zaharias
Her autobiography, written in the English language and published during her lifetime, stands as the primary first-person record of one of the most varied athletic careers in American sports history. Mildred Ella "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias was born on June 26, 1911, in Port Arthur, Texas, a United States citizen who would go on to compete across an exceptional range of disciplines before her death on September 27, 1956, in Galveston, Texas.
Didrikson Zaharias was educated at Beaumont High School, where her athletic pursuits took shape across multiple sports. She competed as a basketball player, a baseball player, a tennis player, a swimmer, a competitive diver, a javelin thrower, and a high jumper — a breadth of participation that set the factual foundation for her later accomplishments. Her abilities in track and field brought her to the 1932 Summer Olympics, where she won two gold medals and a silver medal, demonstrating her capacity to perform at the highest level of international competition.
Following the 1932 Olympics, she turned to professional golf, ultimately winning ten LPGA major championships. This transition from track and field to professional golf marked a distinct second chapter in her athletic life, culminating in her induction into the World Golf Hall of Fame. Her accomplishments were recognized more broadly through her induction into both the National Women's Hall of Fame and the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame, as well as through the receipt of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Associated Press Athlete of the Year award.
The record of Didrikson Zaharias's career across golf, track and field, basketball, baseball, tennis, swimming, and diving remains documented through her autobiography and through the institutional honors she received in her lifetime and after her death. Her ten LPGA major championship victories represent the most precisely quantifiable measure of her professional golf career, and it is on the strength of that record, alongside her two Olympic gold medals, that she was admitted to the World Golf Hall of Fame. She died on September 27, 1956, in Galveston, Texas, at the age of forty-five.
Quotes by Babe Didrikson Zaharias
Babe Didrikson Zaharias's insights on:
That little white ball won’t move until you hit it, and there’s nothing you can do after it has gone.
Some of us are fortunate enough to play championship golf, but this isn’t essential in the enjoyment of the game.
They say golf came easy to me because I was a good athlete, but there’s not any girl on the LPGA Tour who worked near as hard as I did in golf. It’s the toughest game I ever tackled.
You know when there’s a star, like in show business, the star has her name in lights on the marquee! Right? And the star gets themoney because the people come to see the star, right? Well, I’m the star, and all of you are in the chorus.
I came out to beat everybody in sight, and that’s just what I’m going to do.