WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.500 OK, so picture this. It's July 1932, Evanston, 00:00:04.580 --> 00:00:07.599 Illinois. You're at the AAU Championships. This 00:00:07.599 --> 00:00:09.759 is basically the Olympic trials for the U .S. 00:00:09.800 --> 00:00:12.759 Big one. Right. And you see all these teams arriving. 00:00:12.900 --> 00:00:14.859 You've got the Illinois Women's Athletic Club 00:00:14.859 --> 00:00:18.719 with like a whole busload of athletes, squads 00:00:18.719 --> 00:00:21.460 with coaches, trainers, the whole nine yards. 00:00:21.760 --> 00:00:25.260 And then standing there on the grass is the team 00:00:25.260 --> 00:00:28.079 for the Employers Casualty Insurance Company 00:00:28.079 --> 00:00:30.460 of Dallas. And if you're looking for the rest 00:00:30.460 --> 00:00:33.259 of that team, why? You'd be looking for a why. 00:00:33.380 --> 00:00:36.359 Because it's one person, a 21 -year -old named 00:00:36.359 --> 00:00:40.740 Babe Didrikson. Yeah, and secretary was her official 00:00:40.740 --> 00:00:43.259 job title. Yeah. That was really just to keep 00:00:43.259 --> 00:00:45.920 her amateur status. Ah, okay. In reality, she 00:00:45.920 --> 00:00:48.259 was an... industrial league basketball star yeah 00:00:48.259 --> 00:00:50.479 but yeah she walks into this huge national championship 00:00:50.479 --> 00:00:53.520 by herself the story goes that an official asked 00:00:53.520 --> 00:00:55.520 where the rest of her team was and she supposedly 00:00:55.520 --> 00:00:57.740 just said i am the team which i mean that sounds 00:00:57.740 --> 00:00:59.659 like a line somebody wrote for a movie decades 00:00:59.659 --> 00:01:01.899 later it does but you look at the score sheet 00:01:01.899 --> 00:01:04.319 and it completely backs it up it's unbelievable 00:01:04.319 --> 00:01:07.400 she didn't just show up for one race she entered 00:01:07.400 --> 00:01:09.870 eight of the ten events So you have to imagine 00:01:09.870 --> 00:01:12.590 her just running from the javelin pit over to 00:01:12.590 --> 00:01:15.049 the hurdles, then to the high jump. And at the 00:01:15.049 --> 00:01:17.170 end of the day, the Illinois club, with all their 00:01:17.170 --> 00:01:20.310 athletes, scored 22 points. Babe Dedrickson scored 00:01:20.310 --> 00:01:23.569 30. All by herself, she won the entire national 00:01:23.569 --> 00:01:26.590 team championship alone. That's the level of, 00:01:26.609 --> 00:01:29.010 I don't know, dominance I want to dig into today. 00:01:29.230 --> 00:01:31.269 We throw around the phrase greatest of all time 00:01:31.269 --> 00:01:33.430 a lot, you know, from Michael Jordan, Serena 00:01:33.430 --> 00:01:36.420 Williams. Sure. When you look at the life of 00:01:36.420 --> 00:01:38.579 Babe Didrikson Zarias, it makes you wonder if 00:01:38.579 --> 00:01:41.099 we're even asking the right question. Those legends 00:01:41.099 --> 00:01:43.900 dominated one sport. And she dominated, what, 00:01:43.959 --> 00:01:47.400 three? All -American in basketball, multiple 00:01:47.400 --> 00:01:49.859 Olympic goals in track and field, and then she 00:01:49.859 --> 00:01:51.739 completely reinvented herself and became one 00:01:51.739 --> 00:01:54.319 of the greatest golfers of all time. Not to mention, 00:01:54.379 --> 00:01:56.459 she was a sewing champion and recorded songs. 00:01:56.680 --> 00:01:58.859 It sounds made up. Well, and it wasn't just that 00:01:58.859 --> 00:02:00.519 she won. You have to understand the context. 00:02:00.840 --> 00:02:03.640 She shattered what people in the 30s and 40s 00:02:03.640 --> 00:02:06.609 thought a woman could. Okay, let's look at the 00:02:06.609 --> 00:02:08.849 32 Olympics in Los Angeles because that's when 00:02:08.849 --> 00:02:11.110 she really just exploded onto the world scene. 00:02:11.389 --> 00:02:13.409 It's amazing. She actually qualified for five 00:02:13.409 --> 00:02:17.169 different events. Five. Yeah. But the rules back 00:02:17.169 --> 00:02:20.569 then for women only allowed them to compete in 00:02:20.569 --> 00:02:23.530 three. That's a shame in itself. It is. So she 00:02:23.530 --> 00:02:26.629 had to choose. She picked the javelin, the 80 00:02:26.629 --> 00:02:28.810 -meter hurdles, and the high jump. And immediately 00:02:28.810 --> 00:02:31.770 wins gold in the javelin. Right away. Sets an 00:02:31.770 --> 00:02:33.750 Olympic record. Then she goes to the hurdles, 00:02:33.830 --> 00:02:36.770 which is such a technical event. One tiny mistake 00:02:36.770 --> 00:02:39.409 and you're done. And she doesn't just win. No, 00:02:39.469 --> 00:02:41.949 she breaks her own world record in the final. 00:02:42.270 --> 00:02:45.270 11 .7 seconds. Just, you know, another day at 00:02:45.270 --> 00:02:47.189 the office for her. But then comes the high jump. 00:02:47.409 --> 00:02:50.830 This is where we get the only blemish on her 00:02:50.830 --> 00:02:52.710 record, if you can call a silver medal that. 00:02:52.930 --> 00:02:55.449 It was a huge controversy. She actually cleared 00:02:55.449 --> 00:02:57.710 the exact same height as the gold medalist, Jean 00:02:57.710 --> 00:03:00.469 Shiley. They both set a new world record. So 00:03:00.469 --> 00:03:03.229 why silver? The judges. They didn't like her 00:03:03.229 --> 00:03:06.250 technique. She went over the bar headfirst. The 00:03:06.250 --> 00:03:09.550 Fosbury flop, basically. Or a precursor to it. 00:03:09.810 --> 00:03:13.289 Exactly. But in 1932, the rules were very strict. 00:03:13.530 --> 00:03:16.150 You had to go over feet first. They considered 00:03:16.150 --> 00:03:19.330 her style a dive, not a jump. So even though 00:03:19.330 --> 00:03:21.129 she cleared the height, they knocked her down 00:03:21.129 --> 00:03:23.530 to silver. It's just wild that she was so far 00:03:23.530 --> 00:03:25.150 ahead of her time that the rules hadn't even 00:03:25.150 --> 00:03:26.889 caught up to her. That's a great way to put it. 00:03:27.550 --> 00:03:30.479 Now... While we're on the 32 team, our sources 00:03:30.479 --> 00:03:34.199 mention a much darker side to this story. There 00:03:34.199 --> 00:03:38.500 was an incident on the train out to L .A. Yes. 00:03:38.960 --> 00:03:41.740 This is an important part of her story. The team 00:03:41.740 --> 00:03:44.919 included two African -American women, Tidy Pickett 00:03:44.919 --> 00:03:47.139 and Louise Stokes. Which was a big deal at the 00:03:47.139 --> 00:03:49.939 time. A huge deal. But the environment wasn't 00:03:49.939 --> 00:03:52.550 welcoming. Accounts from the time report that 00:03:52.550 --> 00:03:54.930 on the train, Babe threw a pitcher of ice water 00:03:54.930 --> 00:03:57.250 on Pickett and Stokes. Was that, I mean, was 00:03:57.250 --> 00:03:59.550 it a prank or was it malicious? The historical 00:03:59.550 --> 00:04:02.270 record suggests it was racially motivated. Babe 00:04:02.270 --> 00:04:04.930 was known for being brash, but she had also apparently 00:04:04.930 --> 00:04:07.150 said she didn't think black athletes should be 00:04:07.150 --> 00:04:10.389 on the team. Wow. And later, Pickett and Stokes 00:04:10.389 --> 00:04:12.569 were both pulled from the relay team. They were 00:04:12.569 --> 00:04:14.949 replaced by two white runners who were actually 00:04:14.949 --> 00:04:17.430 slower. It's a really stark reminder that... 00:04:17.689 --> 00:04:19.910 You know, being a sports hero doesn't automatically 00:04:19.910 --> 00:04:23.170 make you a moral one. No. And it frames who she 00:04:23.170 --> 00:04:25.269 was. She was a product of a segregated Texas 00:04:25.269 --> 00:04:28.870 in that era. Yeah. But it also speaks to her, 00:04:28.910 --> 00:04:32.029 her intense individualism. She wasn't a teammate. 00:04:32.209 --> 00:04:35.990 She was a solo act, always. Right. She saw everyone 00:04:35.990 --> 00:04:39.009 as competition. Exactly. And that probably fueled 00:04:39.009 --> 00:04:41.810 her, but it also made her a pretty difficult 00:04:41.810 --> 00:04:44.310 and lonely figure after the cheering stopped. 00:04:44.850 --> 00:04:47.699 So the Olympics end. She's now the famous Wonder 00:04:47.699 --> 00:04:50.639 Girl, but it's 1932. We're deep in the Great 00:04:50.639 --> 00:04:53.420 Depression. There's no pro track circuit for 00:04:53.420 --> 00:04:56.220 women. What does she even do? She hustles. I 00:04:56.220 --> 00:04:57.899 mean, that's the only word for it. She tours 00:04:57.899 --> 00:05:00.139 the country playing billiards exhibitions. She 00:05:00.139 --> 00:05:02.120 had a barnstorming basketball team called Babe 00:05:02.120 --> 00:05:04.060 Didrikson's All -Americans. Was she the only 00:05:04.060 --> 00:05:05.819 woman on it? She was the only woman on the court 00:05:05.819 --> 00:05:07.899 playing against men. And then there was baseball. 00:05:08.350 --> 00:05:10.910 OK, this part blows my mind because usually this 00:05:10.910 --> 00:05:13.310 is a publicity stunt. Right. They swing and miss 00:05:13.310 --> 00:05:15.269 a few times for the cameras. Yeah, but the box 00:05:15.269 --> 00:05:16.769 scores here say something totally different. 00:05:17.009 --> 00:05:20.670 Oh, it's not a stunt. She pitched in actual major 00:05:20.670 --> 00:05:23.370 league spring training games. Yeah. In 1934, 00:05:23.550 --> 00:05:26.910 she pitched an inning for the Philadelphia Athletics 00:05:26.910 --> 00:05:29.230 against the Brooklyn Dodgers. Against real major 00:05:29.230 --> 00:05:31.850 leaguers. Real major leaguers. She gave up no 00:05:31.850 --> 00:05:35.149 hits. He walked one batter and then she started 00:05:35.149 --> 00:05:37.170 a triple play to end the inning. A triple play. 00:05:37.550 --> 00:05:40.290 Against the Dodgers. A few days after that, she 00:05:40.290 --> 00:05:42.230 pitched for the Cardinals against the Red Sox. 00:05:42.329 --> 00:05:44.649 Gave up a few runs in that one. But she got the 00:05:44.649 --> 00:05:46.949 final out when a batter flew out to Joe Medwick 00:05:46.949 --> 00:05:49.930 in left field. A future Hall of Famer. I'm just 00:05:49.930 --> 00:05:53.110 trying to wrap my head around the physics of 00:05:53.110 --> 00:05:56.310 it all. What allows one person to be elite at 00:05:56.310 --> 00:05:58.930 so many different motions? Okay, so this is the 00:05:58.930 --> 00:06:01.689 key. It's not magic. It's the kinetic chain. 00:06:02.040 --> 00:06:03.939 Explain that. Think about throwing a javelin. 00:06:04.240 --> 00:06:06.720 The power doesn't come from your arm. It comes 00:06:06.720 --> 00:06:09.660 from your hips. You plant your foot, you rotate 00:06:09.660 --> 00:06:12.019 your hips with incredible speed, and your arm 00:06:12.019 --> 00:06:13.639 is just the end of the wheel. Okay, I can picture 00:06:13.639 --> 00:06:16.019 that. That explosive hip rotation, that's the 00:06:16.019 --> 00:06:18.560 engine. And that exact same mechanical motion 00:06:18.560 --> 00:06:21.379 is the core of a powerful golf swing. So when 00:06:21.379 --> 00:06:24.300 she finally picks up a golf club around 1935... 00:06:24.300 --> 00:06:26.519 She wasn't really starting from scratch. She 00:06:26.519 --> 00:06:29.000 was a latecomer to the sport in her mid -20s, 00:06:29.000 --> 00:06:31.639 but she already had the engine. She just had 00:06:31.639 --> 00:06:34.300 to learn how to aim it. Which explains that famous 00:06:34.300 --> 00:06:36.839 quote from Byron Nelson, one of the all -time 00:06:36.839 --> 00:06:39.500 greats in men's golf. That he only knew eight 00:06:39.500 --> 00:06:41.779 men who could hit a golf ball farther than her. 00:06:41.879 --> 00:06:44.379 And he wasn't exaggerating. She even played against 00:06:44.379 --> 00:06:48.220 the men, right? In PGA events. Yes. In 1938, 00:06:48.339 --> 00:06:51.300 she played in the LA Open. No woman did that 00:06:51.300 --> 00:06:54.600 again for decades until Annika Sorenstam. But 00:06:54.600 --> 00:06:57.439 her peak year against the men was 1945. That's 00:06:57.439 --> 00:06:59.399 the one. She played in three PGA tournaments, 00:06:59.680 --> 00:07:02.339 and she made the 36 -hole cut in two of them. 00:07:02.879 --> 00:07:05.319 To this day, she is the only woman who has ever 00:07:05.319 --> 00:07:07.680 made the cut in a regular PGA Tour event. That 00:07:07.680 --> 00:07:09.579 one stat, I mean, that feels like it should just 00:07:09.579 --> 00:07:12.160 end any debate. It's the ultimate proof. Yeah. 00:07:12.279 --> 00:07:14.860 But you can imagine in 1945 how that went over. 00:07:14.939 --> 00:07:17.459 A woman outdriving the men wearing trousers, 00:07:17.639 --> 00:07:20.360 being loud and competitive. The media coverage 00:07:20.360 --> 00:07:23.199 from that time is... It's rough to read. They 00:07:23.199 --> 00:07:25.480 called her a muscle mall. The press just didn't 00:07:25.480 --> 00:07:28.519 know what to do with her. Thinking was that sports 00:07:28.519 --> 00:07:31.339 were masculine. So if a woman was too good at 00:07:31.339 --> 00:07:33.879 them, there was this anxiety that she was somehow 00:07:33.879 --> 00:07:37.360 becoming a man. They wrote columns telling her 00:07:37.360 --> 00:07:40.379 to go home and get prettied up. It was constant. 00:07:40.519 --> 00:07:42.819 It clearly affected her. Because in the late 00:07:42.819 --> 00:07:45.779 30s, you see this conscious shift. She tries 00:07:45.779 --> 00:07:47.920 to soften her image. She starts wearing skirts 00:07:47.920 --> 00:07:50.240 on the golf course. And she gets married. To 00:07:50.240 --> 00:07:53.220 George Zaharias, a pro wrestler called the Crying 00:07:53.220 --> 00:07:55.699 Greek from Cripple Creek. It was a very public 00:07:55.699 --> 00:07:58.300 marriage. It was her way of signaling to the 00:07:58.300 --> 00:08:00.980 world, see, I am a normal woman. I have a husband. 00:08:01.180 --> 00:08:04.879 But her private life, especially later, was a 00:08:04.879 --> 00:08:07.040 lot more complicated than that. Much more complicated. 00:08:07.220 --> 00:08:09.779 Yeah. In 1950, she met a young golfer on the 00:08:09.779 --> 00:08:12.560 tour named Betty Dodd. They became inseparable. 00:08:12.779 --> 00:08:14.680 And eventually Betty Dodd moved in with Babe 00:08:14.680 --> 00:08:16.360 and George. For the last six years of Babe's 00:08:16.360 --> 00:08:18.079 life, right? That's right. And by all accounts, 00:08:18.180 --> 00:08:20.079 from friends and biographers, it was a romantic 00:08:20.079 --> 00:08:21.779 relationship. They didn't use the word lesbian 00:08:21.779 --> 00:08:23.680 back then. It just wasn't part of the public 00:08:23.680 --> 00:08:25.680 vocabulary. But it's clear they were partners. 00:08:26.079 --> 00:08:28.500 So she's navigating this incredible public career 00:08:28.500 --> 00:08:31.639 while also having to hide this essential part 00:08:31.639 --> 00:08:34.100 of her private life. A huge pressure. Yeah. But 00:08:34.100 --> 00:08:37.250 on the course, she's unstoppable. She helps found 00:08:37.250 --> 00:08:40.710 the LPGA in 1950. She wins the Grand Slam, all 00:08:40.710 --> 00:08:42.990 three majors that existed at the time. She is, 00:08:43.110 --> 00:08:45.490 without a doubt, on top of the world. And then 00:08:45.490 --> 00:08:49.029 in 1953, the diagnosis? Yeah. She'd been feeling 00:08:49.029 --> 00:08:51.710 tired, went to the doctor. It was colon cancer. 00:08:52.049 --> 00:08:54.289 And in the 50s, that diagnosis was basically 00:08:54.289 --> 00:08:56.870 a death sentence. The surgery she had was a colostomy. 00:08:56.870 --> 00:08:59.190 I think for a golfer, that's just, I can't even 00:08:59.190 --> 00:09:01.190 imagine. No. They remove part of your intestine 00:09:01.190 --> 00:09:03.320 and create an opening in your abdomen. You have 00:09:03.320 --> 00:09:05.600 to wear a bag. Yeah. Now think about that violent 00:09:05.600 --> 00:09:07.399 twisting golf swing we just talked about. Right. 00:09:07.600 --> 00:09:09.759 Her abdominal muscles had just been sliced through. 00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:12.679 Most people would just retire, be thankful to 00:09:12.679 --> 00:09:15.259 be alive. But not her. Not even close. She was 00:09:15.259 --> 00:09:17.120 out of the hospital and practicing within a few 00:09:17.120 --> 00:09:20.720 months. Which brings us to the 1954 U .S. Women's 00:09:20.720 --> 00:09:23.919 Open. This moment, to me, is what elevates her 00:09:23.919 --> 00:09:26.799 beyond just a great athlete into something almost 00:09:26.799 --> 00:09:29.519 mythical. It's the Peabody Country Club in Massachusetts. 00:09:29.919 --> 00:09:32.779 It's incredibly hot. Babe is wearing this heavy 00:09:32.779 --> 00:09:34.899 corset to protect herself and hold the colostomy 00:09:34.899 --> 00:09:37.659 bag in place. She's in constant pain. And she 00:09:37.659 --> 00:09:39.299 doesn't just manage to finish the tournament. 00:09:39.460 --> 00:09:41.740 She doesn't just win. She destroys the field. 00:09:42.000 --> 00:09:45.240 She wins by 12 strokes. 12 strokes? Less than 00:09:45.240 --> 00:09:48.120 a year after that surgery? It's physically incomprehensible. 00:09:48.759 --> 00:09:51.279 And that was the year she finally seemed to let 00:09:51.279 --> 00:09:54.539 that individualistic armor down. She told the 00:09:54.539 --> 00:09:56.399 press she wasn't just playing for herself anymore, 00:09:56.580 --> 00:09:59.779 but for everyone in hospitals. It was a beautiful 00:09:59.779 --> 00:10:02.360 comeback story, but it was a short one. Very 00:10:02.360 --> 00:10:05.379 short. The cancer came back. She died in 1956. 00:10:05.779 --> 00:10:08.279 She was only 45 years old. When you look back, 00:10:08.320 --> 00:10:10.200 it feels like we're looking at a mythological 00:10:10.200 --> 00:10:13.759 figure. But it makes me wonder, if Beza Harris 00:10:13.759 --> 00:10:17.139 was born in, say, 2005 instead of 1911, what 00:10:17.139 --> 00:10:19.500 would happen? And that's the great paradox of 00:10:19.500 --> 00:10:22.000 her story, isn't it? How so? If she's born today, 00:10:22.590 --> 00:10:26.809 A coach sees her raw talent at age eight. She 00:10:26.809 --> 00:10:30.169 gets put into an elite track program. She spends 00:10:30.169 --> 00:10:32.830 the next 15 years perfecting her hurdle technique. 00:10:33.250 --> 00:10:36.129 She wins an Olympic gold, gets a huge shoe deal, 00:10:36.230 --> 00:10:39.649 and has a fantastic career. But she probably 00:10:39.649 --> 00:10:42.529 never plays basketball at high level. She definitely 00:10:42.529 --> 00:10:45.399 never pitches against the Dodgers. And she almost 00:10:45.399 --> 00:10:47.840 certainly never even picks up a golf club. So 00:10:47.840 --> 00:10:49.860 the modern sports machine, which is built to 00:10:49.860 --> 00:10:52.220 create these perfect specialists. It would actually 00:10:52.220 --> 00:10:55.919 prevent a Babe Zaharias from ever existing. We've 00:10:55.919 --> 00:10:58.019 optimized sports to the point where that kind 00:10:58.019 --> 00:11:00.919 of renaissance athlete is basically extinct. 00:11:01.220 --> 00:11:03.659 She wasn't just a unicorn. She was maybe the 00:11:03.659 --> 00:11:06.399 last of her kind. I think so. A true one of a 00:11:06.399 --> 00:11:08.639 kind. A good thing to think about next time you 00:11:08.639 --> 00:11:10.519 watch an athlete who is the best in the world 00:11:10.519 --> 00:11:12.679 at just one thing. Remember the woman who was 00:11:12.679 --> 00:11:14.899 the best at everything she tried? Thanks for 00:11:14.899 --> 00:11:17.000 digging into this with us. My pleasure. We'll 00:11:17.000 --> 00:11:18.240 be back with another depth dive soon.