SATURDAY – JUNE 9, 2012

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. 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.