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Mildred Ella “Babe” Didrikson Zaharias was born in Port Arthur, Texas on June 26, 1911 (Freedman16). ... He talked to his seven children about athletes of the times: Babe Ruth, Red Grange, and Jack Dempsey. ... Boys chose her among the rest for their baseball teams, because she hit long home runs like the baseball star Babe Ruth. To her delight, her friends began calling her Babe (Knudson8). Years later she also changed the spelling of her family name, from Didriksen to Didrikson.
Babe grew up tall, slim and strong. ... Babe preferred to wear her brother’s old clothes; everyone considered her a tomboy.
Babe learned to play basketball in elementary school. ... Other girls—the popular and studious crowds—ignored Babe except when she was starring in sports for Beaumont High. In between games they called Babe a “freak,” because she wore boyish clothes unlike them, and kept her hair very short. Babe didn’t change her style of clothes in order to fit in. ... Babe would rather be the best athlete in Texas and after that the best in the world.
With Babe as its star, the Beaumont High’s women’s basketball team, the “Miss Royal Purples”, never lost a game. ...
Impressed by Babe’s performance at the game, Colonel McCombs offered her a spot on his basketball team (Lynn30). For Babe this was a dream come true, because there were few chances for women to play beyond high school. ...
In Dallas, Babe lived on a budget. ... Babe loved “fancy diving” and hoped to compete in the Olympics as a diver, but Colonel McCombs had other ideas. ... In May 1930, Babe competed in her first track meet (Sanford, Green5). ... In May 1930, Babe also led the cyclones to a national basketball title in 1931.
On July 16, 1932, in Evanston, Illinois, Babe represented the Golden Cyclones in the National Women’s Track and Field Championship. ... ”
Almost everything Babe touched turned to gold. Babe won and set new world records in the shot put, 80-meter hurdles, javelin, and baseball throw. ... Babe, the 21-year-old, one-woman track team, scored 30 points to win the national championship for the Cyclones. Reporters ran to file stories about the “wonder girl” predicting that “their” Babe would lead the U. ... George Kirksey wrote that Babe’s big day was “the most amazing series of performances…in track history. ... Babe won two gold medals and one silver medal at the Olympic games in Los Angeles, California (Steinman239). ... Babe wanted to play golf, but she knew she couldn’t make any money at it.
In 1932, Babe hired a manager and over the next two years he arranged promotional work and stage performances; she became a performer of sports instead of a competitor. At the same time, the Associated Press named Babe its Woman Athlete of the Year. ...
While in Los Angeles for the Olympics, Babe had been invited to play one day with four well-known reporters. ... In a newspaper column the next day Babe read that she “possessed the ability to be a great player.” Perhaps this comment inspired Babe to continue improving and exactly why Babe chose to make golf her main sport. With her reputation as an athlete fading, Babe realized that in the long run she could make more money in golf than in her show business games.
In March 1933, after saving up $1,800 from her performances and miscellaneous exhibition sports events, Babe moved with her mother and her sister Lillie to California, where she intended to take a few years off and concentrate on learning golf (Lynn59).
Approximate Word count = 2875
Approximate Pages = 11.5
(250 words per page double spaced)
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