“Babe” Didrikson in Missoula – 1934
Babe Didrikson, Bearded Beauties, Are Here Tonight
Olympic Champion and Fast Whisker Outfit Give Show
Missoula All Stars to Face Strong House of David This Evening.
Whiskers, women and socks on display tonight at the City league park, as the House of David Bearded Beauties, with Mildred “Babe” Didrikson as outstanding attraction, engage a strong all-star club in a nine-inning ball game. The first pitch will be at 6:15, and the ball-park will open at 5:15, so that the early comers may know when to get their choice seats.
Miss Didrikson has customarily pitched a couple of innings each night, and it is expected that the David’s management will accord the Missoula fans the same courtesy. Miss Didrikson is the outstanding professional baseball, basketball, golf, track and field ace of the women’s world, a double Olympic champion and record-smasher, a whirlwind from Texas who has roamed, high, wide and handsome for the last three years through the feminine sports realms . . .”
The above excerpt is from The Daily Missoulian on June 22, 1934
Sport Jabs by Ray Rocene . . .
Two Olympic track and field records are held by Mildred (Babe) Didrikson, a visitor in Missoula tonight with the Bearded Beauties.
In the 1932 Olympic games at Los Angeles, Miss Didrikson threw the javelin 143 feet 4 inches for a new woman’s record with the spear.
She sped to the tape in the 80-meter high hurdles in 11.7 seconds, another new record.
Miss Didrikson forced Jean Shiley to set a new record in the high jump to beat her in that event.
But for persnickety judges, she might have been a triple winner. She had made 5 feet 5 inches in the high jump, Miss Shiley 5 feet 5 ¼. On her last trial Miss Didrikson sailed over at a new height, but the judges said she did a “dive.”
In the high hurdles she made 11.8 in the trials, breaking the old record of 12.2 seconds, and then surpassed her own mark in the finals. In the javelin, her first throw was more than 10 feet further than the old Olympic mark of 132 feet 7/8 of an inch.
The above excerpt is from The Daily Missoulian on June 22, 1934
Davids Lose Ball For Easy Triumph
A Missoula audience of more than 800 adult admissions and a flock of youngsters enjoyed “Babe” Didrikson’s stunts and the ball-losing [clowning] slugging ability of the Bearded Beauties Friday night. The Davids punched the ball out of the park four times in the first inning, Soldier Grey sustaining a severely cut lip in chasing one hoist when he collided with the fence. Ten runs before Henry Blastic, third Missoula pitcher, came in to stop the assault . . .
“Babe” Didrikson, wiry little girl athlete, qualified for the baseball game by shooting an 82 on the Missoula Country club golf course during the afternoon. She pitched two runless innings, Blastic getting the only hit off her sweeping curves, while she fanned a batter in the pinch with two on . . .
“Babe” was the big attraction. “You’ve got a fine golf course, said the Texas girl, who is an average maid as to inches and pounds . . .
The above excerpts are from The Daily Missoulian on June 23, 1934.
Sports Jabs by Ray T. Rocene . . .
A wiry 130-pound girl, Mildred (Babe) Didrikson is one of the best woman golfers seen at the Missoula Country club, say those who saw the touring ball star step on the first tee Friday and lash her drive 230 yards against a gale.
Miss Didrikson is active, lively, bubbling spirit, all muscles and agile endeavor, a boyish-looking girl who tries to please and amuse.
The above comment is from The Daily Missoulian on June 24, 1934.
Rocene had it right, Didrikson was the best female golfer to ever set foot on the Missoula Country Club course, or anywhere else for that matter. She had only recently learned the game when she arrived in Missoula in 1934. She went on to win 82 tournaments in her golfing career. With Patty Berg she co-founded the LPGA in 1949.
The House of David team represented a religious society co-founded by Benjamin and Mary Purnell in Benton Harbor, Michigan. Established in 1903, it was an Adventist cult that sought to reunite the 12 tribes of Israel. Their baseball teams began playing in 1914 and began barnstorming throughout the country in the early 1920s. (information from article: “The religious sect that became baseball’s answer to the Harlem Globetrotters”, by Ryan Ferguson in ‘The Guardian’, 9/21/2016).