FULL episode: https://play.listnr.com/podcast/sports-bizarre
Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-great-babe-didrikson-part-2/id1633189616?i=1000649487696
Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6LwhcuWtmpwBU3zI0gxjsY?si=QXs5fDmkSDCpaSjkMQfkxQ
In part two, Babe Didrikson turns to golf as her next sport to conquer, becoming one of the greatest of all time. She also meets her husband George Zaharias, a professional wrestler, known as the ‘Crying Greek from Cripple Creek.’ Together, they propel Babe to great heights, help form the LPGA, before Babe faces her toughest battle.
If you’d like more Sports Bizarre, become a member of Bizarre Plus: https://sportsbizarre.supportingcast.fm/
As a member, you’ll get:
A weekly bonus podcast
Access to all past episodes
Exclusive behind-the-scenes access
A fortnightly newsletter
Access to the members-only chatroom
Ability to vote on future episodes
Early access to any live show tickets
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sportsbizarre/
Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sportsbizarre
Twitter: https://x.com/sports_bizarre?s=20
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Sportsbizarre
Welcome back to the latest episode of sports Bazaar I’m M Maloy we with Titus O’Reilly you left us uh halfway through the babe what’s babe dedrion dedrion because dedrickson being Norway cuz she was noran background and she’s G from Norway to Texas and she’s taken on any
Sport she ches w three gold two gold medals of silver medal and she she should have won three gold medals she was yes she’s won basketball national championship she’s Resurrected Ville she’s resurrected Ville she’s played baseball against the men and done pretty well yeah she’s been absolutely railroaded out of certain or or
Discouraged from beloved and not loved depending on who you are so the the administrators of a lot of sports didn’t like her and certain sections of the country didn’t like her but then others she was absolutely beloved by the public and the the main thing was her
Conformity to What was seen as feminine standards of dressing Behavior cuz she’d swear as well she was sort of you know she and you were suggesting the the implication the implication that is there and we’ll get into her sexuality as we go on but the implication was they
Thought that she was a lesbian but they wouldn’t say that outright so they’d say she was too manly and things like that and they didn’t they didn’t like that a lot not like enough a lot of other people though and top sports writers like GL granin rice we talked about and
A lot of Administrators though were the opposite there a large majority loved her but there was there were moments in her career how much respect to those guys in particular do you have CU I mean you’ve said it before everyone thinks that looking back retrospectively they’d be working on the Underground
Railway if I was there I’d have been like have the views I have now but to actually be there and to be as unencumbered by those [ __ ] views yeah is truly amazing well she and this is where she was a true Trailblazer on so many levels because she did recreate
People’s mind what a female athlete could be and do both like not just her appearance but she was a powerful player in every sport she did like she used power and strength where women were sort of seen as being agile and Swift she was like no I’ll I’ll hit home runs thank
You very much yeah so she was she really changed this View and the fact she did way and ran all the time and F and build up bulk this was stuff that people were like which now would not you’d have to Standard Operating procedure so this is
Where she’s decided I need to find something I’ll take up golf so she decided to do golf now what she did in turning to golf is she practiced for hours so they would say that every day she would hit 1,500 balls every day wow and um in her only 11th game wasn’t like
A professional game more a high level amateur game but just playing um they said that she produced a 260 yard shot from the first T which is 240 M yeah so she’s crunching the ball anyone I know would take that yeah um so in 1935 she’s built
This up and she enters the women’s Texas amateur tournament at the River Oaks Country Club in Houston they have looked at her amateur status cuz remember she was denied her amateur status being in that ad they had decided that they would basically um look at that they reviewed it the
Golfing authorities did and said no we for the good of the game we think you can play in the amate welcome aboard thank you so she turns up in Houston uh at the River Oaks Country Club for this for first official tournament she’s in it’s an amateur tournament and class
Discrimination becomes a problem here so instead of her being a woman upon gender lines it’s more her workingclass background is picked upon cuz you got to remember this was when I mean long before African-Americans could play it was also poor people weren’t really allowed to play it was a country club
For rich people game not a what she doing widespread so Peggy Chandler who was one of the other she was a socialite in Dallas but one of the top go golfers Southern bell yeah exactly she said about babe we don’t need any truck driver’s daughters in our
Tournament what I love about these times is they didn’t even hide it no no there’s no even subtle racism more I’m just going to conceal it it’s here’s what I’m thinking yeah we don’t want you cuz you’re your typ in here so Jesus uh the crowd however love
Babe they’re thrilled so even though these women are annoyed more people show up to watch this golf tournament than ever before they all follow babe her Gallery is the bigest thank God for the general public they cheer her all the way and she actually defeats Chandler well there’s the karma bus bang
The problem is it’s a hollow Victory because all these uh complaints come in from the upper class competitors and the United States Gold Golf Association look at it and they have so much pressure from these rich socialites that they resin bab’s amateur status which they just cleared so suddenly they say you’re not
They say you have to sit out 3 years to get your amateur status back oh my god um so in the meantime she competes in the Los Angeles open which is a a men’s PGA tournament so and just for context the professional circuit is not as competitive as the amateur circuit at
That time no it is no it is but this is the men’s PGA not the she hasn’t played enough amateur golf to get uh LP uh not a women’s LPGA at this point and but so it’s just amateur for women but there’s a men’s professional one and they let
Her play in one and this is the no woman competes against the men in the PGA until 2003 after babe does in 1938 incredible so she’s the first person to ever do it for the tournament she’s put and so she’s a bit of a novelty for the
Tournament they sort of see it as the benefit why not best female athlete in the country competing against the men baseball did it who doesn’t want to see this right meanwhile she’s not allowed to play with the women because it’s a separate body and they’ve said no yes
Yes yes so she’s put in a plain group of three one was a guy called C Pary Erdman who was a presbyterian uh Minister and a professor of religion at ocidental College the other was a man named George saharis who was a professional wrestler now the organizers thought it was
Hilarious to put a reverend a professional wrestler and babe together they thought was the wrestler a good golfer he was a decent enough golfer yeah wrest he’s there as a wrestler and the this this is a bit of a a celebrity proam kind of yeah wasn’t it yeah before
They had those this was the occasion we just enter an interesting group right so the organizers thought this is hilarious the gallery agreed they had the biggest crowd following them even though they weren’t the best golfers by a long long fantastic George is George saharis the
Wrestler of this group and says I’m not playing with no damn woman okay and they say come on George it’s you’re wrest calm down so anyway Sports they Rock up the three of them they’ve never met sports ruers are all there and they egg on George and say
Come on do a wrestling hold on babe say he like gets her in a headlock and she’s up for it all cuz she’s a lordville back so him and her are pretending to punch each other in the photos and headrock and they start get the like a house on
Fire right they having a ball and he suddenly thinks oh she’s actually fun she shot an 84 he shot an 83 and the Reverend shot a 75 he was the early one the rever taking CH but George and baby come smitten with each other by the end
Of the first round AA golf can do that to you you fallen in love in AA golf I fallen in love but you know in 5 hours of golf 4 and 1/ half hours 4 hours of golf you know whether you like someone or you don’t you it’s a good greatest
Insight into whether you’re going to see this person ever again or not s terrible no one would you still be fun on the golf course you’d be annoying well I’d be in the I’d be in the bloody trees the whole time you’d be wear plus fours and you’d still be using the
Hickory shaft oh God maybe smoking a pipe exactly wearing a sleeveless vest so after a few months they end up with a check patn yeah EX just be a it’s all about the look yeah um so after a few months they’re engaged and then they marry 11 month Sam sne style
Hat yeah yeah yeah i’ look like bag of ants that movie Legend of bag of ants um so after a few months they’re engaged and they marry 11th month later on December 23 1938 this is how he on how long before they get engaged just a couple month and then in 11 months
They’re married 2 because you hadn’t approached her sexuality people suspected she was Elizabeth so she has shown no interest in men up to this point she meets George and marries him I will deal with this nown the view and my reading of it and I suspect that George and her were very
Much in love but I don’t think it was a sexual love I think they both got along like a house on fire there’s nooy each other’s company there was no doubt out together there was no doubt they were basically the love of each other’s life what are you basing this on uh they
We’ll get into some of it the way he supported her they hung out all the time the way they D they did they went and did dancing together they did all sorts of things together businesses together they basically no it was all they but they had no babies they tried to adopt and
They weren’t allowed that was mainly because the rules were incredibly strict back then but it doesn’t seem at any point that there was really a sexual component to it I think he loved her and she loved him and I thought think it was a useful cover for her and we’ll get
Into a bit of this as well in this that suddenly I get you so Time Magazine report on the wedding yes they write married Mildred babe durgon former woman famed woman athlete 1932 Olympic Games track and field star expert basketball player golfer Javelin thrower herdler high jumper swimmer baseball pitcher
Football halfback Bist tumbler boxer wrestler fencer weightlifter Adagio dancer and George zaharis heavyweight wrestler right what a union um now let’s get into George so George zaharis was born on February 28th 1908 in Colorado um his family were Greek immigrants um his real name was Theodore vus um but he
Uh be grows up to be this big strong man so he was literally like about 136 kilos and about 6 foot and by 1928 he’d become a professional wrestler he started wrestling under the name Ted Victory but his promoter changed his last name to zaharis which is Greek for
Sugar okay so George zarus is a completely madeup name but he used it the rest of his life right he was nicknamed The Crying Greek from [ __ ] Creek Fantastic and he played a bad guy was he I was going to say so he was a villain he was a heel yeah he was a bad gu GRE that’s why they wanted to change IR all sudden you’re going to be the crime Greek nasty pasty and it was a
Crying Greek from CRI creek cuz he would they’ve G him in his name yeah they’ve even and he’d play up to the bad loser like so he was the bad loser he was towards the end no one calls themselves The Crying Greek I know they’ve given him that they
Haven’t even allowed him the crying Greek from [ __ ] Greek he was also known as wrestling’s meanest man and the Greek hyena oh the Greek hyena so that was all his Nam this is an example this is an example of an article written about him George crybaby a
Harus the pout pouting padm now pacm is an elephant or a hippo or a hippo uh with the hap happy uh faculty of making the wrestling customers hate him even before he launches some of his quaint routines such as sticking his thumb in his opponent’s eye or kicking
Him in the head as they lie prone on the canvas fantastic so he would do all that stuff right in one match after the match he entered so he’ lost and he was having so playing up to the crowd he had a hisy fit that he’ lost and they love it when
He the more Angry he was after a loss the more they love it he went into the dressing room room and began to put on a show that the patrons outside could not see but could certainly hear he crashed around and yelling and overturning chairs made it sound like D-Day was
Taking place in that little room the old building couldn’t take it and the dressing room partially collapsed bringing Lumber and plaster down on the wresters heads after Rescue by police and firemen George yelled why don’t you folks demand that the commission build a decent dressing room for the wrestlers a
Polican pulled the last pit of debris off Sahara and replied I happen to be the commissioner and you’ll be getting a bill for a new building tomorrow you cry baby one of his most celebrated bouts was in 932 he fought Jim lundis at a soldout Maple Leafs Garden in Toronto he
Lost George lost the audience of was 14,500 it was the highest attendance for any wrestling match in North America that year he said George said I became the busiest wrestler of them all from 932 to 938 I wrestled every night of the week all the time all over the United
States they reckon he he wrestled in 7,000 matches during his career 25 bouts for the world title which he never won because he’s the bad guy he also became a sports promoter so he would by the time he meets babe he’s made a Mak him a fortune he’s going all right because
He’s doing well as wrestling but he’s also promoting other wrestlers and other sports so he’s a smart businessman the minute he marries babe he decides to quit wrestling and put his own career on the back St back back burner and and says I’m gonna promote your achievements I’m sacrifice my own
We’re going to get you up to scratch on golf oh George uh and I’m going to make money so because at the time there wasn’t heaps of money coming in through the golf yet um and I’m going to let you have all and he stops doing media and
All that sort of stuff and this is incredibly rare at the time right for a man to be the one that goes I’ll put you first yeah um and so he uh bab’s Creer the Sal he manages as well to bring in money a tailoring shop a cigar store in Denver a
Woman’s sporting uh clothing uh business in Beverly Hills and a golf course in Florida where they eventually move to so these are all businesses he starts he’s run starting and running right um uh babes fits in very well with him they have very loving time this is where
I say something um she’s takes the home very importantly they had a modern kitchen she installed and they painted the dining room in the kitchen it was called a screaming yellow she says it’s kind of loud but you get used to it the only door in the house was on the
Bedroom cuz she hated doors and believe they cluttered up the place Zahara slept in a double bed and she slept in a single which is which is telling right um that so then uh she’s practicing and in 1940 with George um getting her to play all the time she decides that she’s
Going to feminize Her Image so she’s now married to George she grows her hair a bit longer starts wearing some makeup wearing more appropriate longer dresses yeah she start doing that um and um she starts having like you know all that sort of stuff and George would start
Accompany her to these early uh tournaments and the media noted that his affectionate way of greeting her was to put her in a headlock so during World War II and hits so her career which is she’s waiting for the amateurs to let her back in World
War II hits which stops a lot of stuff babe starts giving golf exhibitions to raise money for war bonds CU she’s still a huge star and in 1943 the United States Golf Association finally says okay your amateur status is Ready Set you can now enter all our tournaments
Yeah so okay here we go um George follows her to everything and in 944 she plays her first cuz the Wall’s been on she plays her first um proper tournament it’s the woman’s Western Open golf event in Chicago George follows her around the course blowing smoke from his cigar to
Show her the wind direction and reward her on the winning Green with a mighty hug and a massive kiss she’s wins and she wins fantastic 1945 the Wars ended and she start to emerge as the most successful and popular women golfers of all time in 945 she plays Flawless golf she’s named
Woman athlete of the year not just in golf and she goes on and wins uh uh consecutively I think she wins about 17 tournaments in a row which has never been beaten in anything um yeah 17 straight tournament she wins including the Bri Bri Women’s Amateur open so she’s going over to
Britain and winning too she um turns professional finally again she’s now won enough at the amateur level and they reckon she’s earning $100,000 in 1948 through her promotions and exhibitions while golf was paying her $33,000 incredible so she’s like that yeah she becomes the leading Money winner on the women’s professional um
Circuit and in 948 she wins her first US Women’s Open yes you got remember she only started playing prop League eight years before um the world championship and the allamerican open um she’s doing all these things where she’s driving these huge she’s like a John Daly type
All the other women are doing these like graceful strokes and that she is just mus like yeah um the great Texan golfer Byron Nelson who was very famous said at the time that he knew of only eight men who could out drive her it’s not and she
Said it’s just it’s not enough to just swing at the ball you’ve got to loosen your girdle and really let the ball have it Zahara said in order to win babe drove balls with taped blooded and sore hands because she just was such a grueling thing and she said I’ve always
Been a fighter ever since I was a kid I’ve scrap for everything I wanted to win every time if a game is worth playing it’s worth playing to win um babe would often tea off and she’d be the first to tea off in a tournament yes
And then regardless of where she was on the board or that day or whatever she was would turn to the gallery and say come on folks follow me and I’ll show you how to play this game so she was show she’s playing to the gallery in 19499 her and George
Moved to Tampa Florida and they bought the Forest Hills Golf and Country Club it had riding stables all this and it had this massive beautiful two-story Clubhouse which had a ballroom and um it had 10 houses scattered around it and they live in one of those houses they had a sign at the
Front saying the home of uh babe and George zaharis um apparently they just had a great Community there she could beat all the men in The Golf Club of course she could uh and friends would say she would play golf beat them all curse with the
Men all day have a beer and then go have tea with the women now on top of this there was created the wpga in 1948 which was an attempt to build up women’s golf Y and in 0 but by 1950 it had collapsed so babe and George helped set up uh the
Ladies professional Golf Association or the LPGA which so she starts that um in 1950 while she’s doing all this she completes the grand slam of the three women’s major tournaments in golf at the time the US Open the title holders championship in the women’s Western open she went on to win the LPGA
Championship 10 times unbelievable um she was voted the world’s greatest women athlete of the first half of the 20th century uh by the Associated Press and she was named the women’s athlete of the Year by the Associated Press in 932 1945 1946 4750 and 54 this is incredible why do I not
Know this as a pro she won 31 tournaments and 10 of them were Majors including the women US Women’s Open three times she was the first to ever win the Grand Slam she was one of Six Original inductees to the LPGA Hall of Fame and that was in 967 so it wasn’t
That long um she was also considered the most popular golfer of her day male or female so Charles mgra the New York Times wrote of her except perhaps for Arnold Palmer no golfer has ever been more beloved by the gallery so she was this huge thing well
That’s high priz she was asked if she would ever retire and she said as long as I’m improving I’ll go on and beside there’s too much money in the business to quit in 1950 though she meets this woman who’s a fellow golfer called Betty DOD and she’s a promising new star and
They traveling around together and it’s was never said at the time but Betty later basically has said this they basically form a romantic relationship now George is so loves babe so much and I think knows what’s going on he lets her move in with them in their home in Tampa
This is so Progressive for the time they found a way to do it yeah and so George is basically like I’m your cover I’ll run your businesses but he genuinely loved her as well but he also knew that he he she’s very clever and very they uh
Both her and no one ever twigged I think some of their closest friends must have known in circle but George you know being a massive greatek professional wrestler you know and if you see him he’s got a bald head and he looks like you know he’s he looks like the manliest
Man he was good cover go to our YouTube yeah and uh and so um her and Betty um both very outgoing people uh they would play harmonica and they would sing together and they were invited and performed on The Ed Sullivan Show Oh I thought you were going to say went back
To Ville two of them the Ed well I want to see you know like abs stars um in 1953 she just won uh the bab Zahara tournament in Bowmont so her own Hometown had now had a tournament named after her um in 1953 she was diagn they
Her doctor diagnos her with stage four colon cancer she underwent a three-hour operation for cancer in the early summer of 953 um she began taking practice Swings with her club before the doctors released her from a hospital and just 14 weeks later she entered the All American
Tournament so she just had this massive operation for colon cancer on the first practice tea watched by hundreds of photographers and sports Riders and wellwishers cuz they all knew she just had a had cancer and had just had this operation she wall uped to drive 250
Yards turned to the ball and said man if I had it any better it would kill me despite the difficulties of wearing a colostomy bag F good she finished is 15th she’s had cancer operation just before y a few days after that tournament she’s in the world golf
Championship and comes third again still with the colostomy back um so she keeps playing this she’s still LPGA president as well um in 54 she takes second at the St peters’s open and then won five major tournaments that year right still recovering from cancer she had a 12 St victory in the US
Women’s Open which was the big one her scores were 72 71 775 it came within three Strokes of the best performance by a man in the US or British Open up to that time mhm during 1955 doctors diagnosed that the cancer had returned and she was um operated on
Again and after that she was in excruciating pain um and it had been worked out that it had spread yes throughout her body um she becomes a part public advocate for cancer awareness at a time when Americans just didn’t talk about no she was the first ever celebrity spokesperson for the
American Cancer Society and she is such a Powerhouse in talking and raising money and knowledge and getting people checked for cancer that US president Dwight Eisenhower invites her on a visit to the White House purely off her cancer work um babe plays her very last tournament
Ever in 955 at Peach Blossom open and she wins um by the end of the year in increasing pain um she begins checking into an out of of the John silly hospital and at Christmas she visited a close friend and Mentor Bera Bowen who’s another athlete and she asked to be
Taken to a golf course and they drove her to the new golf course and in bathroom and slippers unable to walk she knelt down uh on the second green and touched the grass and then um she still tried to play but she couldn’t play anymore at this stage um George stayed
By side the whole time y uh she said on September 27th George I ain’t going to die but the next morning she woke up and had uh you’re getting emotional getting emal pass away that morning at 10:33 after her death President Eisenhower walked into a large room took
His place b a stand of microphones and said ladies and gentlemen I would like to take one minute to pay tribute to miss saharis babe Duren she was a woman who in her Athletics career certainly won the admiration of every person in the United States all sports people all over the
World and in her Gallant fight against cancer she put up one of the kind kind of fights that inspired us all I think that every one of us feels that she finally had to lose this last one of all her battles um oh wow sorry got you mate got me you’re all right
Um so um a film was made of her in 975 called babe and Susan Clark played her and Alex Caris played joy zaharis and they um had only met making the picture and they married see this is just good karma what what’s the film called uh babe well
We’re getting that out DOD went on to win the lpj Tour in 56 and 57 so the two years after babe died yeah um her ankle injury forced her retied George outlived Babe by 28 years never got over it he married Betty Burgess who was an actress
In 1960 in Las Vegas that didn’t really work I think that was a rebound one yeah uh in 1981 she marries her childhood sweetheart he did yeah who had been married but her husband had died so he found some happiness later on um he spent his whole time looking after young
Golfers so and teaching them and doing all this sort of stuff um he suffered a stroke had pacemaker installed he’s died in 984 from after long Health he died in Tampa Florida on May this was from the Colorado Springs newspaper uh at at 76 having outlived B the love of his life
By 28 years um he was inducted into the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame Museum as part of the class of 2020 the crying Greek from crippled Greek um we got a got a crying Greek in our studio right I know I didn’t mean to get emotional it’s such a great story
Right um now remember they lived in the golf course yes so he uh couldn’t really handle it once she died and sold it to developers yes and it stood there they were trying to get planning permission couldn’t get planning permission and in 1962 um the clubhouse burnt down so that
Magnificent Clubhouse it burn down the golf course falls into disrepair right in 1974 the city of Tampa takes it over rebuilds it builds it up and names it the Babe saharis golf course it got Heritage production a protection and operates to this day one of the great
REM sorry we got to cut some of this out no we one of the great reminders of one of the greatest athletes who ever lived there It Is Well Done we got there wow finally got you got me stor got me um we’re going to have to sit together and watch
Babe and we’ll get a box of clay X out I got emotional in the Jimmy White episode you that’s a great story and it’s so not of its time it’s not well known I just can’t believe that story isn’t they’re all good characters you know what I me
Apart from the weight of judgment and the time and all that negative energy they had to blast through that’s a good story and I didn’t know that and that’s a Prejudice we must overcome well done are you all right you’re all right big fell I’m good I just love that story so
Much can we um well you want to go to the YouTube on this one you want to you want to see them hav I well done that’s what it is you Ry them you research them you bring them to the table and you love it it’s a great
Um that’s a super story uh thank you very much let’s go and have a beer and man up good Tois oy well done
