William (Billy) Sunday (1862–1935)

Born November 19, 1862, near Ames, Iowa, William Ashley “Billy” Sunday entered life amid national upheaval and family sorrow. His father, a Union soldier, died during the Civil War, leaving Billy’s mother to struggle against poverty. In time, Billy and his brothers were placed in the Iowa Soldiers’ Orphans’ Home, a hard school of hunger, discipline, and endurance. The nation called his father to sacrifice; the boy learned early that courage is often forged in quiet suffering.

From Orphan’s Home to Major League Baseball (1883–1891)

Sunday’s athletic gifts and work ethic opened doors few could have imagined. He rose to Major League Baseball during the 1880s, playing in an era when travel was rough, pay uncertain, and temptation plentiful. Speed, self-control, and grit became habits, not slogans. The ballpark also revealed the limits of applause: fame can be loud, but it cannot cleanse a conscience or steady a soul. “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way as to take the prize.” (1 Corinthians 9:24)

Conversion at Pacific Garden Mission (Chicago)

In Chicago, Sunday encountered the Pacific Garden Mission, known for open-air evangelism, rescue work, and plain preaching to the weary and broken. There, by the grace of God, he was converted—turning from sin to Christ, not as a gesture, but as surrender. His story echoed the gospel’s promise that no past, however battered, is beyond redemption: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

Evangelist of Repentance and Holiness (from 1893)

In 1893 he left professional baseball to preach, carrying the same urgency of the diamond into the pulpit. His campaigns, often held in large temporary tabernacles, pressed hearers to repent, trust Christ, and pursue holiness in daily life. He spoke plainly against drunkenness, moral compromise, and hypocrisy, urging men and women to live under God’s Word with integrity. An estimated 100 million heard him before his death in 1935. His life stands as a testimony that providence can lift an orphan from hardship, yet the greater miracle is a sinner made alive in Christ—and then spent for the good of others.