Frank Thomas

Zaharias Notable Sports Figures
Chronology
1911 Born in Port Arthur, Texas
1915 Moves with family to Beaumont, Texas
1929 Stars in volleyball, tennis, baseball, basketball, and swimming
teams at Beaumont High School
1930 Recruited by the Golden Cyclones basketball team in Dallas;
drops out of high school in her junior year to play with the
team
1930 Joins Golden Cyclones track team in Dallas
1930 Wins two firsts at National Women’s Amateur Athletic Union
(AAU) meet, in javelin and baseball throw; wins second place
in long jump
1930-32 Selected as an All-American women’s basketball player; led
the Cyclones to the national championship in 1931
1931 Wins national AAU meet; enters eight events and wins gold
medals in six; sets world records in the high jump, 80-meter
hurdles, javelin, and baseball throw
1932 Singlehandedly wins Texas AAU meet
1935 Wins Texas Women’s Amateur Championship in golf
1938 Marries professional wrestler George Zaharias
1940 Wins Texas and Western Open golf tournaments
1946-47 Wins 17 golf tournaments; becomes the first woman to win
the British Women’s Amateur championship
1948 Wins All-American Open, World Championship, and U.S.
Women’s Open
1950 With 12 other women, Zaharias founds the Ladies
Professional Golfer’s Association
1950 Meets companion Betty Dodd at an amateur golf tournament
1953 Diagnosed with colon cancer and undergoes surgery to
remove the tumor; wins Ben Hogan Comeback of the Year
Award
1953 Babe Zaharias Open is founded in her honor in Beaumont,
Texas; she wins the first event
1954 Wins five tournaments, including the U.S. Women’s Open
1956 Dies in Galveston, Texas
ments on the athletic field. She was the high-scoring forward
on the girls’ basketball team at Beaumont Senior
High School during both her junior and senior years,
and during her tenure on the team, they never lost a
game. Her obvious talent attracted the attention of
Melvorne J. McCombs, who coached the Golden Cyclones,
a women’s basketball team sponsored by the
Employers Casualty Company of Dallas, Texas; in addition
to sponsoring teams, the company promoted the
idea that athletes were more efficient workers. Zaharias,
who in addition to her athletic ability was a skilled typist
and stenographer, signed with the company as a secretary
in 1930. Because she was paid $75 a month for her
secretarial services, she was officially still an “amateur”
athlete, an important distinction at that time; athletes
who made money from their sport were barred from
many competitions, including the Olympics. However,
Zaharias’ main focus was playing on the company’s basketball,
baseball, diving, tennis, and track and field
teams. She soon became a star athlete. The company’s
basketball team won the national championship in 1930,
1931, and 1932, and Zaharias was a National Women’s
Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) All-American forward
for the Women’s National Basketball League for all
three years. She often scored thirty or more points, even
though at the time, it was considered respectable for an
1826
entire team to score twenty. On the softball team, she
was a power-hitter, with a batting average of over .400.
In track and field, she often practiced her skills all day
long; when she matched the women’s high jump record
of five feet, three inches, her coach bought her a chocolate
soda. In The Life and Legend of Babe Didrikson Zaharias,
Susan Cayleff described Zaharias during those
years: “We don’t see a young athlete striving solely for
steady improvement or personal bests. We see a woman
with a consuming hunger attacking—and determined to
conquer—world records.”
In 1931, at the national AAU track meet, which was
the qualifying meet for the 1932 Olympics, Zaharias
competed in eight of ten events, winning gold medals in
five and tying for gold in a sixth. She set world records
in the javelin (139 feet, 3 inches), 80-meter hurdles
(11.9 seconds), high jump (5 feet, 5 inches, tying for
first with Jean Shiley), and baseball throw (272 feet, 2
inches). At the 1932 AAU championships, Zaharias
competed as a one-woman team, and singlehandedly
won the team championship with 30 points; in contrast,
the second-place Illinois Women’s Athletic Club, which
included 22 athletes, accumulated only 22 points. Zaharias’s
performance was the most amazing feat by any
athlete, male or female, in track and field history.
Sets Records and Wins Gold at 1932 Olympics
Not surprisingly, Zaharias was a favorite to win at the
1932 Olympic Games at Los Angeles, and she did. Although
women were only allowed to enter three
Olympic events at that time because they were considered
too weak to compete in more than that number, she
broke four world records. She won the javelin throw
with a toss of 143 feet, 4 inches, and won the 80-meter
hurdles, breaking the world record twice during the
competition; her best time was 11.7 seconds. Zaharias
also made a world-record high jump, but because she
went over the bar headfirst instead of leading with her
feet, the jump was disqualified by two of the three
judges for the event. (This rule is no longer used, and
current high jumpers all lead with their heads; Zaharias
was later given credit for tying for first place in the
event and setting a world record in the jump.) In the
press reports of the time, she was nicknamed the “Iron-
Woman,” the “Amazing Amazon,” and “Whatta Gal
Didrikson.” Amazingly, during that year, male athletes
only set Olympic records, leaving the world records untouched;
Zaharias, on the other hand, broke both
Olympic and world records in her events.
Although Zaharias’s athletic talent could not be denied,
she was often resented by other athletes, who felt
that she was aggressive, overbearing, and a braggart,
and that she would do anything to win. According to
Larry Schwartz in ESPN.com, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, a
track-and field phenomenon in the 1990s, reflected on
these traits, “It wasn’t that she was cocky or aggressive.