 This is Jimmy Powers and happy to be coming your way with another Grantland rice story Hi there, this is Jimmy Powers transcribe bringing you another chapter from the Grantland rice story the tumult and the shouting So far we've met many of the greats in our journey down granny's friendship road in the world of sports But in most cases the emphasis has been on the male side today granny's next chapter deals with the diss staff side So with a low bow to granny rice I pick up the narrative in first person and turn to the chapter entitled the other babe and women in sports For more than 50 years. I have watched a great sports story gathered tidal wave force This is the story of women in competition a story practically unknown at the turn of the century Who were the women golf and tennis stars of 1900? I'll have to admit I don't recall although there must have been a faint flutter of interest in certain games at that time However, in my opinion the two girls who did most to turn the world spotlight on their sex with the possible exception of Cleopatra Were Eleonora Sears and babe Dietrichson's a Harrius a Boston society girl and a solid Texas miss I didn't glimpse the Sears girl in the early 1900s when she was blazing a trail by kicking holes in all feminine Concepts of competitive sports. She played a man's game in tennis an excellent player with a smash In-game she was also a powerful swimmer a golfer who could punch her shots a fine horsewoman and a squash rackets champion for many years I read where this wonderful girl played in the national championships during the winter of 1954 at 70 years young Anything you can do I can do better was a hit when Ethel Merman sang it Eleonora Sears was living that concept in her attitude towards sports competition with men back in the early 1900s she won her cause and was the prime liberator of women from steel and whalebone corsets to the shorts and t-shirted gals of today The successor to miss Sears was and remains my old girlfriend babe It is an odd turn that perhaps the two flashiest figures in sports two of its immortals were called babe babe Ruth and Babe Dietrichson they stand above the mobs and the multitudes They will still be alone and above the others when you and I are dust I Heard something about babe Dietrichson in 1931 when this clerk typist of the employer's casualty company of Dallas, Texas came east to enter the women's national track and field Championships at Newark, New Jersey as I recall she won six firsts jumping and running off with the meat. I First met the babe a year later just before the Olympic Games open in Los Angeles The officials would allow her to enter only three events Babe was upset. She wanted to enter six or seven She won the javelin and the 80 meter low hurdles But was disqualified in the high jump and had to settle for second place when her record leap was disallowed Watching babe Saharius that day early in August 1932 I thought I saw the makings of a champion not in track and field Where she already had proved her gold medal rating, but in golf a sport where a girl might compete with men on their own terms In my mind she had all the physical attributes the legs of a half back slender enough But strong long muscled arms nice height and above all a pair of strong hands and wrists Westbrook Pegler and Paul Gallico were pounding away on their own stories When I mentioned that we might be looking at the greatest future woman golfer of all time She tells me she's never played golf, but that she'd like to try it. I said How would you like to go out early tomorrow to Brentwood? I'll bring the babe along and we'll see what she can do Recalling that round recently. I thought babes a Harrius had done pretty well Olan Dutra the club pro a former open champ watched her make one long carry all he said was I saw it But I still don't believe it After that match boosting the babe was one of the most pleasant and satisfying jobs in sports She so rarely let me down on any competitive assignment Grants girl they called her it was all right by me. I tried to find something. She couldn't do frankly I failed but I was certain one day. I had the stopper. How is your sewing? I asked I Frequently make my own clothes. She replied and if it interests you, I'm a pretty good cook. I Forgot to ask how her archery was. I knew it was excellent in 1933 when babes a Harrius was barnstorming around the country playing basketball Our sport light film company made a moving picture of her in 12 sports The film was shot mostly in and around Dallas Perhaps the sequences of her playing football with Ray Morrison's southern Methodist team were gagged a little But the important point is that she was adept at running and handling a football. She threw a baseball 296 feet an Olympic mark Her points in diving were close to perfection and her 100-yard swim test was but a fifth second off Babes reflexes were instantaneous She was strong where strength was needed quick where the premium was on speed and deafness in 1935 babes a Harrius took up golf seriously by the end of 1935 She was playing championship golf and 19 years later at the age of 39. She was still at the top of her game During the war the two babes Ruth and the Harrius played a war bond match against Mrs. Sylvia Annenberg and mysterious John Montague the strong man who plays par golf with hoes rakes and shovels The match was played on Long Island And the course has since gone the way of all turf as a housing development Promoted by the Hearst papers and Bill Corham the show drew between 25,000 and 30,000 people who stampeded the course like great herds of sheep Off the first tee around 1 p.m. It was near 6 p.m. When the foursome reached the ninth green Ruth trying to keep his shots on a string to prevent his ball from sculling a tourist with a hook had a rough journey as For babes a Harrius she needed a putt of less than six feet for a 32 When the crowd engulfed the contestants on the ninth green While the babe was winning the British women's amateur in 1947 over the gale swept course at Galain Scotland the first American to win it I was fighting a battle of my own with pneumonia The morning she arrived back in New York I had hoped to be there to help greet her when she came down the bay a Suite had been reserved at the New Yorker hotel when I called Babe's a Harrius and George wanted to come up to see me I spent a short half hour at their hotel quietly celebrating with babe and George the Harrius two wonderful kids whom I feel constitute an unusually warm and wonderful American love story Babe's a Harrius not only has the speed strength coordination and competitive temperament But a quality of stamina that until recently has been unlimited I doubt that anyone except Ben Hogan has played more rounds of golf during the past 18 years Then has babes a Harrius. I asked her in March of 54 if she had any idea How many rounds she'd played since starting her relentless attack on par in 1935 I Haven't given it too much thought she replied but figure it this way for the best part of 18 years I've averaged a round a day. That's 365 rounds of golf times 18 or 6,570 rounds a lot of walking a lot of shots I've worked Grantland. I've worked hard. I Want you to know something else babe continued since I've been playing serious golf I've seen you many times at many clubs, but mostly it's been just a greeting en route to the first tee Hello, babe. How's your game? You'll say and I reply fine Grantland just fine, but that's not enough Your best columns have been written from the men's locker rooms following a big match. That's where a gals at a disadvantage We have no one to talk to but ourselves Somehow the locker rooms the best place to discuss what shots one or lost a match and what's going on with you or me Looking back a little I wish I'd known you there Grantland a Star in 1932 she was a greater golfing star in 1954 more than 20 years have gone by but the famed babe Remained at a remarkable peak in her day and time She had been the finest woman athlete of all time one of the great golfers in the one sport She selected for a sporting and a competitive career and now once again This is Jimmy Powers transcribed closing the tumult and the shouting for today next week I'll return with another Grantland rice story until then so long