Billy Sunday

WILLIAM ASHLEY (BILLY) SUNDAY
1862 - 1935

Billy Sunday is still one of the twentieth century's best known evangelists. By the time of his death in 1935, he had preached to millions, and it is estimated that three hundred thousand men and women were led to faith in Christ at his over two hundred campaigns. He was also recognized for his determined contribution to passing the Prohibition Amendment, and promoting the sale of war bonds during World War I. None of the recognition, however, replaces the impact Sunday had on the lives of those who hit the sawdust trail at one of his meetings.

Sunday himself was converted at the Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago (1886) while playing professional baseball for the Chicago White Stockings. In 1891, he left baseball to enter full-time Christian work, first at Chicago's YMCA, and then working for itinerant evangelists. He held his first independent evangelistic crusade in Garner, Iowa, in 1896, beginning a career which spanned five decades.

In his heyday, Sunday's campaigns were held in temporary wooden structures or tabernacles, built for the event. Sawdust covered the tabernacle floor. Those who responded to Sunday's appeal to trust Christ walked up the sawdust covered aisles to shake the evangelist's hand. These campaigns, however, were preceded by extensive planning and prayer, and there was usually a follow-up program.

A Sunday campaign was the product of the contributions of many people. Sunday developed a team of co-workers which traveled with him and handled various duties, including administration and music. Key figures on this team were his wife Helen (or Ma), musicians Homer Rodeheaver and B.D. Ackley, and businesswoman Virginia Asher. Local clergy and lay volunteers were also instrumental in planning and running a Sunday evangelistic campaign.