Pacific Garden Mission, Chicago, Illinois

Billy Sunday, a popular professional baseball player for the Chicago White Stockings, came to the mission in 1886. He first heard the gospel from the mission Gospel Wagon on the corner of State and Van Buren. He visited the mission that night and liked what he heard and one night Billy publicly accepted Christ as Lord and Savior. He became an eager Bible student and gave his testimony frequently at the mission. Billy learned his first lessons in giving the invitation and in talking man to man with a sinner, explaining the steps to salvation. Later, after turning down a lucrative offer to continue his baseball career, Billy Sunday became a world renowned evangelist. http://www.pgm.org/pages.aspx?PageName=Our_History_Part_2