A babe, a golfer & a “Greek Hyena”: Inside the wacky sports throuple that scandalized 1950s society
Babe Didrikson Zaharias broke the mold, and lived out her love story behind closed doors
Mark
Have you ever had a friend who’s mysteriously good at everything they do, even things they’ve never tried before? Take that friend and multiply them by a thousand and you’ve got Babe Didrikson Zaharias, a bisexual baddie who made history in just about every sport she played, from baseball to golf to track and field. She could even throw the occasional saucy javelin and break records while doing so.
But even more fascinating than Zaharias’s prowess on the field were her adventures in the bedroom, where she proved an equal opportunity lover of the highest water.
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The Texas-born Babe gained her nickname after hitting five home runs during a kid’s baseball game, an omen of many more jaw-dropping moments to come. As a young athlete, Babe secured three medals for Team USA at the 1932 Olympics, including two gold medals for her hurdles and javelin throwing.
But she wasn’t limited to one single sport: as a baseball player, track star, diver and bowler, she left the competition in the dust before finally becoming a champion golfer later in her career. “Implausible is the adjective which best befits the Babe,” the New York Times crowed in an early profile, and they weren’t wrong. It seemed like there was nothing Babe couldn’t do, and her nickname—taken from baseball star Babe Ruth—was more than earned.
But as if Babe’s exploits on the field weren’t enough, she kept on wowing the world even in her private life. In the late 1930s, Babe married fellow athlete George Zaharias—aka “The Greek Hyena”—who started out as a wrestler and eventually took a backseat to manage his wife’s thriving career in the 1940s. Zaharias was destined to outlive his wife after Babe’s fight with rectal cancer ended in her death in the late 1950s.
But before that time, Babe got to live out a few years with the love of her life, a fellow female golfer named Betty Dodd whom she met at a tournament in 1950. The two couldn’t live openly together, but after Babe’s diagnosis, Betty moved in with Babe and George, and the two “pushed their beds” together while George seemingly looked on. Good for them!
Babe and Betty’s romance may have been short lived, but it still made history. “They never used the word ‘lesbian’ to describe their relationship,” writes the Instagram account @LesbianRepresentation in a post from last year, “but there is little doubt that they were intimate and loving partners.”
Playwright Carolyn Gage put Babe and Betty’s love story front and center in Babe: An Olympian Musical in 2018. Taking notes from Babe’s biographer, Gage fleshes out the scene between Betty, Babe, and George at the end of Babe’s life.
“Betty was Babe’s ‘primary partner,'” she writes. “A fellow pro golfer, Betty roomed with Babe on the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) circuit and lived in her home for the last six years of Babe’s life. Whatever George may have thought of this arrangement, he accepted the situation.”
Today, Babe is remembered as one of the finest athletes of all time, with a more varied and impressive record than many of her more-famous contemporaries like her namesake Babe Ruth. A Beaumont, Texas museum built in 1976 pays tribute to Babe, but she’s still less widely known than she should be considering just how much she accomplished in her relatively short lifetime.
Babe was the stuff of legend, but her gender presentation and queerness ruffled plenty of feathers. “She was criticized for her look; she was criticized for not being ladylike enough,” her biographer told CNN. “There were comments made in the press, that she should be home sitting by the phone, waiting for a suitor to call her as opposed to being out competing. It was very harsh, negative, critical things. And they hurt her deeply.”
Still, she took these comments in stride, knowing that the best revenge is a life well lived.
“I don’t see any point in playing the game if you don’t win,” Babe was often quoted as saying. But her healthy sense of competition never made her mean spirited. In her obituary, the Times remembered that: “instead of greeting her rivals with, “Yep, I’m gonna beat you,” she began encouraging the younger girls on the golf circuit.” She even established a trophy for aspiring women golfers before her death in 1956. A born trailblazer, she made sure she created space for those who came after her.
To Babe, the point of playing the game—and winning—was pleasure. Even without meaning to, Zaharias pushed against the gender norms and carved out her own life, refusing to bow to the sexism of the times. She lived her life on her terms, and didn’t care who knew it.
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