If you haven't heard of the "other" Babe, that's a tragedy. She was the finest female athlete of the 20th century, and possibly ever, capable of hitting a golf ball into the stratosphere before they made clubs out of titanium and striking out Joe DiMaggio (seriously). How did she do it? Here's what she said: "You've got to loosen your girdle and let it rip!" Go, Babe.
(Yes, she was probably a sister, as ESPN sort of ham-handedly acknowledges:
In the later years of their marriage, problems arose as Zaharias lost influence with his wife. Babe spent more time with good friend Betty Dodd, a young golfer who was a natural athlete and had no interest in looking feminine. She often stayed at the Zaharis' home in Tampa. )
I can't resist one more quote, from an article in the Organization of American Historians Magazine of History:
In the early 1930s, an unsuspecting New York newspaper reporter approached Mildred Ella "Babe" Didrikson. She was already, at the young age of nineteen, nationally known as a championship basketball player and double gold and silver medalist in track and field at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics. The reporter said, "I'm told you also swim, shoot, ride, row, box, and play tennis, golf, basketball, football, polo and billiards. Is there anything at all you don't play?" "Yeah," the East Texan replied, "dolls"
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