The famous sportswriter,
Grantland Rice once said of Babe Didrikson Zaharias, the amazing female athlete
of the twentieth century, "She is beyond belief until you see her
perform." She not only played an
unbelievable array of sports, including basketball, baseball, golf, track,
swimming, skating, cycling, and more, but she excelled in them like no other
woman of her time. She once said,
"My goal was to be the greatest athlete who ever lived." Although she wasn't appreciated by some
teammates because of her seeming arrogance, especially in her younger years,
she was voted Female Athlete of the Year six times by the Associated
Press. That included a span of over 20
years. She became truly one of the greatest American athletes of all time.
Babe was born in Texas in
1911. A classic tomboy, she was often
chastised for not being very feminine.
She was strong and muscular, although only of average build, and she definitely didn't
want to accept losing. She was once voted the Greatest Female Athlete of the
first 50 years of the twentieth century.
She won two Gold medals in the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics, in the 80 m
hurdles and Javelin throw, and a Silver medal in the High Jump. At the end of
her career she had 48 pro wins, 41 of them in golf, on the Ladies Professional
Golf Association tour, which she and Patty Berg founded. She was once asked how she could drive a golf
ball more than 250 yards, and she replied, "You've got to loosen your
girdle and let it rip." A writer
from the New York Times, Charles McGrath once said about her, "Except
perhaps for Arnold Palmer, no golfer has ever been more beloved by the
gallery."
Babe married George Zaharias
in 1939, a year after they met and she became smitten by the wrestler, who also
participated in the 1938 Olympics. He
eventually became her manager and advisor.
Babe died of colon cancer in
September of 1956. Not long before that
she won her third U.S. Women's Open by 12 strokes, proving once again what an
amazing athlete she was. A lasting tribute of hers, along with her husband, was
to establish the Babe Zaharias Fund to support cancer clinics. She was an
incredible athlete--rare indeed, and women athletes everywhere can be grateful
for her contributions to the world of sports.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For a complete list of the pictures go
to
Please make payments via Paypal at Lynda.clark84@yahoo.com
No comments:
Post a Comment