When he was a teenager, my father used to caddy at the local courses in and around Normandy. He frequently talked about the celebrity golfers he caddied for and/or saw play including Babe Didrikson. I remember him saying that she hit the golf ball harder than anyone he ever saw. (He also said baseball player Leo Durocher was the worst golfer he'd ever seen, but that's another story.)
This book is a very good juvenile biography of the great woman athlete, her determination, and the controversies around her. While she helped to fight against those who believed women should not participate in sports like basketball and track, her personality and "I'm in it to win" attitude was frequently off-putting. After making her name in amateur basketball, Mildred Ella "Babe" Didrikson trained in track and field events and went on to be the first winner of the Olympic gold medals in women's javelin and 80m hurdles. Her real fame came as a golfer, winning 10 major championships. She even met her husband, wrestler George Zaharias, on a golf course and they later owned a course together. After cancer surgery left her with a colostomy, she was told she would never play golf again but made a brief comeback before dying at the age of 45. This book is packed with photos, illustrations, and sidebars with commentary from fellow athletes and coaches. It's an interesting read and packed with plenty of facts to make it useful for kids doing reports for school.
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