Caitlin Clark Just Broke the All-Time Scoring Record, But This Female Athlete May Be the Greatest of All Time
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Caitlin Clark, a guard for the Iowa Hawkeyes, has had a recording-breaking season. Among her accolades, she now holds the record for most career points in Division I history for men and women. However, if you take a trip to Beaumont, Texas, you’ll find a museum in honor of a woman who was perhaps the greatest female athlete of all-time.
Babe Didrikson was talented in the game of basketball and much more. It's been nearly a century since she passed away, but her accomplishments still astound visitors today.
“Babe was born in Port Arthur, Texas, and moved here after a hurricane. Her parents were part of the working class, and they were Norwegian immigrants,” says Sadie Atha of the Beaumont Convention and Visitors Bureau.
She was born Mildred Didrikson but, as Atha explains, we know her as Babe because of a local athletic achievement early in life.
“She scored five home runs in one inning on her neighborhood baseball team and they compared her to Babe Ruth, so that’s how she got the name Babe,” Atha says.
Babe’s athletic ability was evident from an early age. One of the neighbors even trimmed the Didrikson’s hedges so Babe could practice jumping them for the hurdles.
In 1932 she competed in the AAU track and field championships and won the event as a one-woman team, beating highly regarded teams of more than 20 ladies from the nation’s top universities. Later that year she set her eyes on the Olympic games.
“In the pretrials she competed in, she qualified for five events, but at the time women were only allowed to compete in three events,” Atha explains.
At the Olympics she won the javelin throw, setting a world record, received gold in the 80 meter hurdles and also earned silver in the high jump when the judges broke a tie on technique. Those medals are on display at the museum in Texas.
Babe was talented in many sports and soon began focusing on the game of golf where she perhaps made her biggest impact.
“She won 82 tournaments in her lifetime, even had 17 consecutive winning titles and was the first American to win one of the British tournaments. She really made a name for herself, which is why she’s the world’s greatest female athlete,” Atha says.
She was a founding member of the LPGA, opening the doors for more women to compete in the game of golf. It was the game of golf that led her to marriage, when she was partnered with wrestler George Zaharias. They were married in 1938.
In 1953, at the age of 42, Babe Didrickson was diagnosed with cancer. She died three years later. Her life was but 45 years, but her accomplishments, across numerous sports, earned her the title of Female Athlete of the Century by the Associated Press.
“She has a legacy, but she worked hard to inspire and encourage people that if you put your mind to it you can absolutely accomplish it,” Atha says.
While the trophies in the museum cases were awarded decades ago, Babe’s accomplishments live on as an inspiration to athletes across the globe of what hard work and determination can do.
