This Week in Christian History: Methodist Bishop, 'Gregorian Chant' Pope, Billy Sunday
Billy Sunday Gets Married - September 5, 1888
This week marks the anniversary of when famed evangelist Billy Sunday married Helen Amelia "Nell" Thompson, having proposed to her on New Year's Day 1888.
Sunday was still a professional baseball player at the time of the wedding, his first official revival meeting not taking place until January 1896.
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The marriage took place in Chicago, Illinois where the two had met in 1886 at a church youth group. A few days later, Sunday traveled with his new wife to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to continue playing for the Pittsburgh Alleghenys.
"He had been playing excellent baseball in August, and after his wedding he continued his dramatic play in the field and on the base paths, making good contact at the plate and running out infield hits," noted the Society for American Baseball Research.
In a 1913 book, author Theodore Thomas Frankenberg argued that an "account of the career and achievements of Rev. W. A. Sunday" would be incomplete "unless it made full recognition of the part Mrs. Sunday has had in both."
"So nearly coincidental are the Christian ministry and the married life of Mr. Sunday that a separation of the two is almost impossible," wrote Frankenberg.
"It is doubtful if either of the couple realize the amount the other has contributed to the success of the work."
