Best known as: Hall of Fame woman golfer and athletic champ
Name at birth: Mildred Didrikson
Mildred 'Babe' Didrikson Zaharias was voted the outstanding woman athlete of the century in a 1950 Associated Press poll. Though she gained her greatest professional fame as a golfer, she rivalled Jim Thorpe in her remarkable ability to excel at nearly any sport. She began as a basketball All-American, then won two track and field golds at the 1932 Olympics. Next she turned professional and began touring the country, exhibiting her prowess in track, swimming, tennis, baseball, and even billiards. In 1935 Zaharias took up golf and excelled at that, too, winning 82 tournaments in a 20-year career. She died of cancer in 1956. Her autobiography, This Life I've Led, was published in 1955.
Extra credit: Zaharias claimed she earned the nickname 'Babe' for Babe Ruth after hitting five home runs in one baseball game... She married professional wrestler George Zaharias in 1938... The Babe Zaharias Museum opened in Beaumont, Texas in 1976... Zaharias was played by actress Susan Clark in the 1975 TV movie Babe. The next year Clark played the title role in the TV movie Amelia Earhart... Golfer Annika Sorenstam played in a men's professional tournament, The Colonial, in 2003 -- making her the first woman to play a PGA tournament since Zaharias played in the 1945 Los Angeles Open.
