Record of Achievement

     Babe was declared by Bobby Jones to be one of the 10 best golfers of all time, male or female.

The record of Mildred (Babe) Didrikson Zaharias for athletic versatility stands at the top for both men and women.

     She was voted the world’s greatest woman athlete of the first half of the 20^th Century in a poll conducted by the Associated Press.

     She was six times named Woman Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press, 1931, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1950, and 1954.  No other athlete in either division, man or woman, made this honor so many times.

     As a golfer, both amateur and professional, Babe knew no peer in her sex.  She won every major professional championship at least one time and in the case of most of them, more than one time.

     She became the first American to capture the British Women’s Amateur and the first performer to win both the United States Women’s Amateur and the British Women’s Amateur.

     She was the first woman to win the Western open three times.  She won this event as an amateur and a professional.

     Babe knew little about golf and did not take up the game until after she had gained world fame in track and field and All-American status in basketball.  She also had mastered tennis, played organized baseball and softball and was an expert diver, roller-skater and bowler.

     Then,  she reached the heights in golf and is known as the player who did more than any other to popularize women’s golf.

     Babe is a member of the Ladies Golf Hall of Fame and Helms Athletic Foundations Golf Hall of Fame.

     She won 17 amateur tournaments in a row, including the British Amateur, the U.S. Amateur and the All-American.

     She was a three-time All-American basketball player – 1930, 1931, and 1932.  In track and field, she either held or tied for the world record in tour events and held the United States – AAU record in four events.

     Babe won two gold and one silver medal for the U.S. in the 1932 Olympics.  Establishing Olympic records in two events, and tying for the record in the third.  In one instance she established the world record and in another she tied for the world record.  She was given the second place medal in the event in which she tied – the high jump – in what has been recognized as a miscarriage of justice.  Later, Babe was credited with the Olympic record (tie) as well as the world record.

     Here is a resume  of the height of her success in each track and field event in which she excelled:

     80 METER HURDLES – Won 1932 Olympics with an Olympic record time of 11.7.  A world mark which stood until the next games in 1936.  Won the AAU  sanctioned United States event in 1931 at 12 seconds, an AAU-United States record which was not broken for 18 years.

     JAVELIN – Won 1932 Olympics with a throw of 143 feet, 4 inches, an Olympic mark which stood until the 1936 Games.  Won the AAU sanctioned United States championship in the event in 1930 with a throw of 133 feet, 6 inches, an AAU-U.S. record.  Beat her own record in 1932 at 139 feet, 3 inches.  Her original mark in this event was not broken for 25 years.  Babe’s marks in the javelin were considered world records before 1932.    

     HIGH JUMP – Tied for the 1932 Olympics title with an Olympic record jump for 5 feet 5 inches with Jean Shiley.  Miss Shiley was given the gold medal and Miss Didrikson was accorded the silver medal (actually it was half-gold and half-silver, the only such medal in Olympics history) when officials ruled Babe out for using the “Western Roll”.  Later Babe was credited with the Olympic first place tie.  The International Amateur Federation sanctioned Miss Didrikson’s jump as the world record, which she held jointly with Miss Shiley for six years.  Prior to the Olympics, her jumping style had not been questioned.  The Olympic mark stood for 16 years.  Miss Didrikson tied for the AAU – sanctioned United States high jump championship in 1932 with Miss Shiley with a jump of 5 feet, 3 inches.  The 1932 Olympic jump of Didrikson and Shiley stood as the best effort in the United States for 23 years.

     LONG JUMP – Won AAU-sanctioned United States championship in 1931 with a jump of 17 feet, 11 inches.  Prior to this, only Stella Walsh had jumped further.  Babe jumped 18 feet, 8 inches in the National AAU meet for an unofficial world record, but in the same meet, Walsh bested her mark by a half-inch.