Thursday May 17, 2007 Section SPORTS Page 3 Shaw Keeping Zaharias' Dream Alive By MICK ELLIOTT This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it TAMPA --

New people move in. Others move on. All of a sudden what once was common knowledge becomes forgotten fact.  So this reminder: Babe Zaharias, considered by many to be the greatest female athlete who ever lived, once made Tampa her home. Babe and husband George, a professional wrestler with significant fame of his own, moved here in the early 1950s with plans to live happily ever after.

For anyone who does not know, that is the reason the Tampa Sports Authority's public course off Forest Hills Drive carries her name. The property is where Babe and George opened the Tampa Golf and Country Club, and across the street built what was described as their dream home. Then the woman who won two Olympic gold medals and three U.S. Women's Opens, who bowled and boxed, played basketball, tennis, lacrosse, basketball and baseball, was finally defeated by cancer at age 45. With her body being ravaged by the disease, Babe did not remain in Tampa, instead returning to her childhood home near Galveston, Texas, to spend the final year of her life before dying in 1956. The result is nobody will ever know the impact Zaharias, a bold and fascinating personality of larger-than-life proportions, might have made on her new community --  although Hal Shaw is willing to make an educated guess.

"Babe's dream, as soon as she retired from golf, was to build a facility for children with disabilities," Shaw said. "She and George could not have kids and she loved children. She had set aside 40 acres for this project, which would have been very similar to what is now the [Ronald] McDonald House and the Joshua House, where parents bring children with disabilities.

"She had promises -- written and oral from all sorts of people in the entertainment world. She had politicians. She had all sorts of people sitting on go when she got ready to retire to build this foundation. It was an idea long before its time and she had it all in place and it was going to be in Tampa."

Firsthand Knowledge

Shaw knows because he was there. He was 14 when Babe and George moved to  Tampa and opened their golf course. He got a job working at the club, doing what teenage helpers do around a golf course. "And more or less, they adopted me," he said. "I worked for George and Babe for about five years. I became 'Junior.'"

Now a retired club professional, Shaw figures he may be chief among all Zaharias historians. After Babe's death, Shaw remained close to George after the wrestler returned to Tampa and lived here until passing in 1984.

So several years ago, Shaw figured he would write a book. "I know so much about them that has never been published, and I probably have the largest photo collection of unpublished photos of her and George in existence," he said. "But I kept getting directed into another direction."  That's how The Babe and George Zaharias Foundation came into existence. Shaw formed it eight years ago in an effort to carry on the original dream. The goal is to serve children with disabilities from Camp Florida, a Rotary International-owned facility, as well as abused and neglected children at the Children's Home of Tampa.

Fundraiser Scheduled

The start was difficult and slow, but progress has been made. Two years ago, the USGA designated the Babe and George Zaharias Foundation as one of its non-profit organizations and provided a $15,000 grant. Now there is another opportunity to grow.  On May 26 and 27, a fundraiser will be hosted by Terrace Hill Golf Course. Golf retail store Edwin Watts is donating a collection of demo clubs for sale. Volunteers and some of the kids who will be helped will be on hand. "[Babe's] dream was unique, because at the time no one had done anything  like that," Shaw said. "She wanted to do it here. If she had lived a full life, there is no telling what might have been created. "But now, while a lot of people in Tampa have heard of Babe Zaharias Golf course, it does not mean anything. They don't connect the dots. They forget her history." Not if Shaw can do anything about it.

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