TL, DR: Billy Sunday’s first professional baseball game was played May 22, 1883, in Chicago at now-Millennium Park. Ten years later, on June 11, 1893, D.L. Moody would preach to his largest audience at the same spot, in a circus tent! The 1890s were the peak of the Gilded Age. Industrialization, wage growth, railroads, factories, mines, immigration, formed the boom Read more...
The Billy Sunday Baseball Field was constructed in the 1930s to serve as a consistent playing location for Nevada’s semi-pro baseball team. The field was originally located on the west side of S14, but was soon relocated to its current location, just east of S14. The Nevada High School baseball team began playing at the field around 1934, which prompted Read more...
According to the Ames Historical Museum, Billy Sunday attended Clearview School, a one-room schoolhouse on the northwest corner of South Duff & Airport Road in Washington Township. At the time, Sunday was living with his maternal grandparents, the Cory’s. Read more...
From FairfieldCulturalDistrict: In 1907 Billy Sunday held revival services in a 3000-seat tabernacle at this address, which was later dismantled and reconstructed at Chautauqua Park, and then used until 1931. Billy Sunday, born in Ames, Iowa, after 8 years as a professional baseball player, became an evangelist in 1896. Very popular until his death in 1935, he is said Read more...
Billy Sunday (1862-1935) was born north of Des Moines, Iowa. His father died just five weeks after he was born, in the Union Army during the Civil War. Sent to the Iowa Soldiers’ Orphans’ Home, he discovered his athletic abilities. Upsetting the state champion, Sunday went from the Marshalltown fire brigade ball team, to the professional leagues with the Chicago Read more...
