Billy Sunday (1862-1935)

Billy Sunday had an unsettled childhood. He was born in Iowa but his father was killed in the Civil war before Billy was a year old. Thus Billy spent many years in an orphanage. He became a professional baseball player and played in the major leagues for seven years.

In 1886 Billy converted to Christ as a result of street preaching, and he gave up his baseball career in 1891.

Billy spent several years working at the YMCA and he became an ordained minister in 1903. Soon he was asked to lead a revival himself and for the rest of his life he was never without an invitation to preach. In 1914 he was placed eighth in a poll of the greatest men in America, a clear indication of how effective his preaching was.

He died in 1935 aged seventy three. He had held over 300 revivals, spoken to more that one hundred million people in his preaching life and led more that one million people to Christ.