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I Have Fought A Good Fight
Rev. William Ashley "Billy" Sunday |
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Billy Sunday was born into poverty, grandson of German immigrants. He held a number of odd jobs until 1883, when he was discovered by Chicago White Stockings manager "Cap" Anson. Sunday, an extraordinarily fast runner, joined the White Stockings and played professional baseball for eight years. After hearing hymns sung by the Pacific Garden Mission, Sunday became a born-again Christian in 1886. He retired from baseball in 1891 to work as an assistant to an evangelist, and became a preacher himself in 1896. Sunday's sensationalistic "fire and brimstone" preaching was incredibly popular. He traveled from town to town, holding revival meetings in temporary wooden tabernacles, condemning liquor, birth control, and other sins of the modern age. As times changed, Sunday was increasingly seen as a relic of the past, and his popularity waned. He died of a heart attack in Chicago in 1935. |
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