Female boxer faces fight of her life

How long does it take to completely shatter a life? For Katie Dallum, the answer was seven minutes. It took seven minutes to lose a boxing match, to injure her brain beyond repair and to forfeit everything about the life she once led. Dallum was nobody's million dollar baby. But her story bears a striking resemblance to the movie that won best picture at this year's Academy Awards. The Clint Eastwood epic doesn't mirror her life exactly, and the endings are very different. But in some ways, the real story is even better, and more inspiring, than the best Hollywood had to offer.

Katie Dallam: “If I had lost the side of my brain that all my artwork is from, I don't know if I would still be here. Because you know, that's the side of me that makes my life worth living.”

The haunting images in Katie Dallam's art come from a time and place she can barely recall, a tragedy that took place on a different kind of canvas 9 years ago.

Katie Dallam: “It just started coming out all the dark images and people might call them monsters or whatever. But to me, it was just what I was feeling inside.”

Stone Phillips: “So, there's a part of you screaming to be free of what you've struggled with?”

Katie Dallam: “Yeah, just screaming to get out and yet feeling the impact of the injury, I guess.”

In 1996, Katie Dallam became the first female professional boxer seriously injured in the ring.  What happened to her that night would not only inspire her art, but it's believed to be the basis for a short story that became the blockbuster, Oscar-winning film, “Million Dollar Baby.”

Like the boxer in the movie, played by Hilary Swank, Katie's from Missouri and came to the sweet science late in life.  An Air Force veteran and recovering alcoholic, her real profession was counseling addicts. But after seeing this televised bout that landed a female boxer on the cover of “Sports Illustrated,” Katie was intrigued.

Katie Dallam: “I just thought it was kind of like, you know, I make a few hundred dollars and-"

Phillips: “And there was something exciting about it.”

Katie Dallam: “Yeah, and I just had kind of fun.”

So at age 37, Katie went looking for a trainer. But the one she found was nothing like the movie version.

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