Who was Babe Zaharias?

photo credit: no lurvin here.   Babe Zaharias was the greatest female athlete of the first half of the 20th Century.  Her nickname Babe came from her love for the infamous baseball player, Babe Ruth. 

Born in 1914, in Port Arthur, Texas, she started in sports as a basketball player.  She competed in National Track & Field  Championships winning six of eight events entered the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics where she competed in javelin, hurdles and the high jump.

She turned golf professional in 1948 and went on to win three US. Opens for Women and won four tour events in the same year after her surgery for colon cancer.  She died in 1954 at the age of 42. 

Babe played many exhibition matches with Gene Sarazen, Bobby Jones and Joyce Wethered all across America.