Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn has signed a proclamation making this coming Saturday, June 26, as "Babe Zaharias Day " in Tampa, the date that marks what would be her 100th birthday.
As the Mayor states in his proclamation, Zaharias was the premiere female athlete in the world in the first half of the 20th century. She was a stellar Olympic athlete, named six times by the Associated Press as the Woman Athlete of the Year. She also was named by the news organization as Woman Athlete of the Half Century in 1950, and the Woman Athlete of the 20th century in 1999.
Born Mildred Didrickson before changing her name to Babe, she was an all round incredible athlete, and most prominently a star track and field performer, winning medals in the 1932 Summer Olympics. In 1935 she took up golf, and became a sensation there as well, ultimately totaling 41 wins on the L.P.G.A. tour.
In 1949 while living in Tampa, she purchased a golf course in the Forest Hills area . After her death in 1956, the golf course was sold. It lay dormant as developers attempted to acquire the land for residential housing.
In 1974, the City of Tampa took over the golf course, renovated it, and reopened it, naming it the Babe Zaharias Golf Course, one of three public courses owned by the city.
This article appears in Jun 16-22, 2011.