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RebelGirls. It

1:30

was a Thursday in late January 1950, and in Tampa, Florida, 13 young women stood on a

1:42

wide, green expanse. They

1:45

were dressed in long skirts and

1:48

were surrounded by magnificent oak trees,

1:50

soft rolling lawns, and handmade signs

1:52

that they'd placed along the golf

1:55

course before them. They'd

1:58

also roped off any areas around them.

2:00

around teas and greens, written

2:02

all the contestants' names on leaderboards

2:04

and hauled their clubs to the

2:06

first tee. A

2:09

small crowd gathered around them, trying

2:12

to keep the buzz of excitement at

2:14

a minimum so everyone playing could concentrate.

2:18

Now on the tee, Babe

2:20

Zaharious. As one

2:22

of the athletes stepped up to the opening

2:25

tee and checked her stance, there

2:27

was a collective hush over the crowd. This

2:30

wasn't just any old game. These

2:33

women were about to make history

2:36

at the first ever Ladies

2:38

Professional Golf Association Tournament.

2:47

I'm Michelle Wee West, a professional

2:49

golfer on the LPGA. And

2:51

this is Good Night Stories for

2:53

Rebel Girls, a fairy tale

2:56

podcast about the real life women

2:58

who inspire us. On

3:00

this episode, the founding members of

3:03

the Ladies Professional Golf Association, also

3:06

known as the LPGA. Living

3:16

in America in 1950 was

3:18

pretty challenging for women, especially

3:21

if you had hopes or dreams

3:23

of creating a life outside the

3:25

home. World

3:27

War II had recently ended and women

3:30

had done so much to keep the

3:32

country thriving while the men were away.

3:36

Women were asked to do everything,

3:38

from factory work, to

3:41

piloting planes, to

3:44

risking it all as medics on the

3:46

front line. Still,

3:51

once the fighting stopped and the soldiers

3:53

came home, most women and

3:55

girls were told they'd be long back

3:57

in the kitchen, cooking. cleaning

4:00

and raising families. Playing

4:04

professional sports was definitely not on

4:06

the list of things women were

4:09

supposed to do. But

4:12

that didn't matter to the 13 founders of

4:15

the LPGA. In fact,

4:17

it only made them more determined.

4:21

Each of these women came to the sport of

4:23

golf from a different place and

4:25

had unique reasons why they loved

4:27

this game so much. What

4:30

was the best way

4:32

to win the LPGA? Alice and Marlene

4:34

Bauer were sisters from a little

4:36

town called Eureka, South Dakota. Alice

4:40

had won the South Dakota Amateur

4:42

Golf Championship at age 14. Marlene

4:46

was already the youngest player in

4:48

history to make the cut for

4:50

the U.S. Women's Open. She

4:53

had been playing since she was three years old. Patty

4:56

Bird, who later became the first

4:59

president of the LPGA, was

5:01

the visionary leading the charge. Charming

5:04

Marilyn Smith, also known as

5:07

Miss Personality, wanted everyone

5:09

to feel as hopeful and energized

5:11

about women's golf as she did.

5:14

And Shirley Spork and Helen Detweiler

5:16

were most excited about becoming golf

5:18

instructors and sharing their love

5:20

of this sport with the world. Two

5:23

of the biggest names in this powerful

5:25

group were Louise Suggs and Babe Zaharias.

5:28

Louise was nicknamed Miss Slugs because

5:30

of her incredible arm strength as

5:32

she swung. She

5:35

became a World Golf Hall of Fame

5:37

member and won award after award for

5:41

both her strength on the course

5:43

and her leadership skills. Babe

5:46

was a force of nature. She

5:48

started playing sports by playing neighborhood

5:51

baseball and jumping over hedges

5:53

in her hometown in Texas. She

5:56

excelled at just about everything she tried.

6:00

basketball, baseball,

6:03

swimming, diving,

6:06

boxing. The

6:09

list went on and on. When

6:12

someone asked if there was anything she didn't play,

6:15

she said, yeah, dolls. After

6:19

Babe won three medals in the 1932 Olympics

6:21

for track and field, she

6:25

decided to dive into golf, and

6:27

she was amazing. People

6:30

were in awe of how far she could

6:32

drive the ball. But

6:40

again, leading up to 1950, there

6:44

were very few ways for women to

6:46

get a shot at professional sports, particularly

6:49

in golf. Even

6:51

if there was an opportunity to play professionally,

6:53

a female winner was given $500

6:56

in prize money while

6:58

the male winner was given $10,000. This

7:03

has to change, said Patty,

7:05

Louise, Betty, and Babe. Some

7:08

people had tried to organize a women's league before,

7:10

but hadn't been successful. It

7:14

wasn't until all 13 of these

7:16

women joined forces and

7:18

devoted themselves full time to

7:20

creating community and competitive tournaments

7:22

that things really took off.

7:29

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leads us back to that momentous

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first tee shot. That's

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what they say for the first swing in golf

9:40

in January of 1950.

9:43

On the green were Alice and

9:46

Marlene Bauer, Patty Berg, Betty

9:48

Danoff, Helen Detweiler,

9:50

Helen Hicks, Opal

9:52

Hill, Betty Jamison, Sally

9:55

Sessions, Marilyn Smith,

9:57

Shirley Spork, Louise Suh.

10:00

and Babe Saharias. All

10:03

13 women had pulled

10:05

together to create the inaugural

10:08

Ladies Professional Golf Association

10:10

Tournament. Or

10:13

really, really we could

10:15

go back to the months before that

10:18

day when these gutsy women had to

10:20

do everything to make this tournament happen.

10:23

While men might have caddies carrying

10:26

all the equipment and marketing teams

10:28

promoting them, the founders of the

10:30

LPGA had to do everything themselves.

10:34

They had to raise funds, which

10:36

sometimes meant paying out of their own

10:38

pockets. They had to organize

10:41

which players would be paired together and

10:43

the order of the tee times. They

10:46

had to figure out how to register and

10:48

publicize each event. Then

10:51

they had to pack their cars with

10:53

handmade signs, paint, stakes,

10:56

rope, books, ledgers,

10:59

plus suitcases full of clothes, golf

11:01

clubs, golf shoes, and golf

11:03

balls. Many women

11:06

packed charcoal grills, pots and pans

11:08

because they'd be traveling for so

11:10

long. Plus an ironing

11:12

board and iron, a record player,

11:14

a typewriter, and hair dryers. A

11:17

few of the players even brought pets or

11:20

guitars to keep them company on the road.

11:23

There were no cell phones or

11:25

GPS so these women had to

11:27

follow each other very carefully. They

11:30

had a color-coded paddle system to keep

11:32

everybody together on the road. If

11:34

someone needed to make a pit stop, they

11:36

held a paddle out their car window. Another

11:39

color paddle meant people were getting

11:42

hungry and a third color

11:44

meant they needed to stop for gas.

11:47

They did this for thousands of

11:49

miles, traveling across the country, setting

11:51

up a different event each

11:53

week. It was

11:56

exhausting but also exhilarating. That

12:02

first tournament was a hard-earned success. Each

12:05

of those original 13 LPGA-ers

12:07

were incredibly proud. The

12:10

athletes were strong and focused. And

12:13

yet, some reporters who covered

12:16

the event continued to talk about

12:18

what the women looked like or

12:20

even how athletics were ruining femininity.

12:24

But these women were not about to leave

12:26

their dreams behind because of

12:28

someone else's old-fashioned ideas about

12:30

what women should or shouldn't

12:32

do. They were redefining

12:34

what female strength could look

12:37

and feel like. With

12:40

each swing, they got stronger.

12:47

In 1956, the LPGA

12:49

faced a particularly tough time when

12:51

Babe, one of the

12:53

most outspoken and recognizable founders, got

12:56

sick and passed away. Babe

12:59

had always been loud, fierce, and full

13:01

of energy. The rest

13:03

of the group knew that she would want them to

13:05

keep taking the world by storm. So

13:08

that's exactly what they did. The

13:13

LPGA Championship that year was

13:15

very exciting. It was

13:18

held at the beautiful Forest Lake

13:20

Country Club in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

13:23

The competition was intense, with

13:25

Marlene and Patty neck-and-neck for the

13:27

win. They had to

13:29

go into extra holes for a playoff

13:32

until Marlene was crowned the champion. That

13:35

was just the beginning of her winning streak for

13:37

the next five decades. Meanwhile,

13:40

Patty won 15 major

13:42

championship titles and Louise got a

13:44

career grand slam. Besides

13:48

all the athletic achievements, though, these

13:50

women got stronger as a collective

13:52

force. Shirley and

13:54

Helen started the LPGA Teaching Division,

13:58

where they taught women how to become a

14:00

leader. professional golfers and or

14:02

golf coaches. They

14:04

empowered all of their students to be

14:07

curious and to learn and support each

14:09

other. Even

14:12

if it felt like a slow

14:14

process sometimes, the LPGA kept growing

14:16

and gaining influence. Their

14:19

tournaments got bigger, their

14:21

teaching division expanded, and

14:24

more importantly, they were setting a new

14:26

standard for women in sports. The

14:29

LPGA made sure that women of all

14:32

races were welcome to play in their

14:34

tournaments. And if

14:36

they faced any pushback or discrimination

14:38

from a clubhouse, they refused to

14:40

hold the tournament at that facility.

14:44

You see, these women didn't need to

14:46

fit into someone else's vision of what

14:48

strong or feminine meant. They

14:51

were making their own rules now.

14:53

The Ladies Professional Golf Association has

15:00

come a long way since 1950. They now

15:02

host tournaments all over the globe, have

15:04

more than $120 million in prize money,

15:09

a growing hall of fame, and some of the finest teachers in

15:11

the sport. These

15:14

women really did revolutionize not only

15:16

this club, but

15:19

also the world's biggest competition. Not

15:22

only this game, but women's

15:24

place in sports. The

15:26

LPGA is the first sports

15:29

organization founded by women and

15:31

still owned by women. They

15:35

each had dreams and goals for

15:37

themselves and realized it would only

15:39

work if they came together and

15:42

made this happen with each of their

15:44

skills. Every time

15:46

someone told them they weren't feminine

15:48

enough or strong enough, they

15:51

turned to each other and said, oh yeah?

15:54

And then they mapped their own

15:57

course, made their own

15:59

signs, and took a swing. This

16:10

podcast is a production of Rebel

16:12

Girls based on the book series

16:14

Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls. This

16:17

episode was narrated by me,

16:20

Michelle W. West. It

16:23

was produced and directed by Deborah

16:25

Goldstein with sound design and mixing

16:27

by Mumble Media. It

16:30

was written and edited by Abby Schur,

16:33

fact checking and additional consultation

16:35

by Steve Eubanks, managing

16:37

editor of the LPGA. Our

16:40

executive producers are Jess Wolf and

16:42

Joy Smith. Original

16:45

theme music was composed and

16:47

performed by Elektra Barjaki. A

16:50

special thanks to the whole Rebel

16:52

Girls team to make this podcast

16:54

possible. Until next

16:56

time, stay Rebel. Can't

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get enough of Rebel Girls? Well, luckily,

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more. All parent trusted and kids

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at rebelgirls.com/audio and download the Rebel

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Girls app today. Thanks

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