Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-09-27

billiards tour, and won fancy
diving laurels in swimming
meets.
Started With Basketball
Babe first commanded atten-
ton in basketball. It was while
starring for the Beaumont High
School girls team that Col. M. j.
McCombs secuted her and gave
her a lob with his insurance
company in Dallas, where she
could play for his company team.
She was is then. And Babe
earned her salary for more than
Just athletics. She already had
won a gold medal in high school
for speed tipping, attaining Sc
words a minute.
In her first game with the in
surance company team, she was
high scorer against the defend
ing national champions. Babe
was an All-American three years
in a row, and her team won the
AAU title one of those years, in
1881, and twice was runnerup.
She once scored more than 100
points against a Sunday
school" team.
Col. McCombs often would
drive the girls to work to save
them carfare. as Babe told it in
her autobiography This Life
I've Led" written in 1855. One
Saturday morning he suggested
they watch a track meet after
Office hours, inasmuch as the
basketball season was over. 1t
was her first look at track, and
Immediately she was ready to
take up the sport.
As she did in every sport that
she undertook, Babe put every
thing into track. She worked
hours each day, and sometimes
into the night, on field events.
She ran the 40 until she would
drop with exhaustion. In her
first track meet she entered four
events and won all four.
Excelled at Diving, Too
During the summer months in
Dallas. she also won numerous
fancy diving honorS. She wrote
that she thought she could have
qualified for the Olympic swim
ming team if she concentrated
on diving. She didn't care much
for swimming.
In softball that same summer
she hit Is home runs in one
double header. mainly because
Of her speed.
The Babes interest in track
was whetted by the fact that the
women's National AAU cham
pionships were held in Dallas in
1880. She won the javelin throw
and baseball throw and broke
the world record for the broad
Jump. only to have Stella Walsh
top her by quarter Inch a few
minutes later in the jump. She
won three firstS in 1881, in the
Nationals. and in the Olympic
year of 1882 really became seri-
ous.
The Babe went to Chicago in
1882 as the lone representative
Of the Employers Casualty Co. of
Dallas. She had her eye on the
National AAU team champion
ship. She won it. all by herself
Babe was so excited the night
before she couldn't sleep and
when she and her chaperone
finally dozed off about dawn,
they oversight and almost missed
the meet. Babe changed clothes
in the cab en- route to the North.
western University field.
She spent the afternoon run
ming from one event to the other.
in trials and heats.
running finals, etc. She entered
eight events. placed in seven. in
GLIDING five firsts and tie. She
scored 80 points to win the team
title by 8. The super-athlete
stories started with this meet.
That night she danced until 8
a IN.
Babe would have entered five
events in the 1882 Olympics. but
the limit wasthree. She selected
the javelin, hurdles and high
Jump. On the train to Los An
geles. she spent the days doing
puShups and hurdle bends. Sew
eral times q day she would run
the length of the train.
In her first event, the javelin,
she broke the Olympic and world
record with a throw of lab feet
1 inches on her first turn. She
tore a cartilage when her hand
slipped. and her next two turns
thought she wasn't
trying.
She won the 80-meter hurdles.
but just barely. because she
jumped the gun and was called
back. 1t means disqualification
IN the OlympicS If you jump the
gun a second time. and as a re-
suit she trailed after a slow and
careful start.
In the high jump. it appeared
Babe was going to get a tie for
first, but the judges ruled her
Western roll did not conform
with the high jump rules Of the
De- FOR women. and that her