Remembering Brother Chette: 'He loved Auburn and he loved people'

AUBURN, Ala. – In victory or defeat, Rev. Chette Williams was always there.

Every practice, team meeting, workout and game.  

"Being out there with them every day, going through the tough times and the good times, you have earned the right to be heard, and not demand the right," Williams said in 2017.

Brother Chette, as he was known to all, combined availability and authenticity to make an eternal impact during 26 seasons as Auburn football’s team chaplain and Auburn’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes campus director before he passed away Sunday. 

“He was a foundational piece to who Auburn is,” coach Hugh Freeze said. “The impact he’s made on so many lives, we really won’t know the magnitude of all that until eternity. We certainly know he’s in a better place but there’s mourning in and around the building today and in the Auburn family that knew him.”

“I’ve seen him impact our team in tremendous ways,” said team captain Eugene Asante, a linebacker from 2022-24. “He consistently poured into the development of young players, a vessel God used day in and day out to preach His word and be a light.”

An Auburn letterman in 1983 and 1984, Williams often shared his testimony. How a teammates’ outreach after Williams’ brief dismissal from the football team in 1982 by then head coach Pat Dye led to Chette’s spiritual transformation.  

"When I started working at FCA, the Lord really worked on my life,” Williams said in 2017. “I carried the quote that Coach Dye gave me when I played here and he kicked me off the team. Then he let me come back. His words that morning when I went into his office were, ‘Let's just take it one day at a time.' I never thought I would be here this long. I've just been taking it one day at a time."

“He used his story to motivate and draw souls to Christ,” Asante said. “He laid it all on the table for us. I sat there and heard his heart. I saw so much change in my life since I first got to Auburn because of Brother Chette.”

Because he was acquainted with grief, having lost his 19-year-old son in 2019, Brother Chette empathized and comforted others during times of loss.

“He was there when my dad passed away,” said team captain Luke Deal, a tight end from 2019-24. “He was a constant presence in my life and someone who had lost a loved one. He was there to talk, pray and be there for me during a difficult time. 

“I owe a lot to him because I’ve learned a lot from him. I’ve learned my teammates a lot better because of him. I’ve built bonds in part because of what he’s done for me and my teammates.”

Relationships with Brother Chette lasted long after players concluded their Auburn football careers.

“He’s been the constant who unites everybody,” said former quarterback Jason Campbell, who arrived in 2000 in Williams’ second season at Auburn. “The impact he made on generations. To us, he was more than our team chaplain, he was a close friend. 

“Brother Chette gave this program a lot. He exemplified what a Hard Fighting Soldier was, walking among men and impacting lives on campus on a daily basis. He left it all here. He loved Auburn and he loved people.”

Former defensive lineman Reggie Torbor came to the Plains as a freshman in 1999, the same year Williams joined the program as chaplain and FCA campus director.

"He means so much to me," Torbor said. "I was a man who didn't have much faith when I got to Auburn. I was starting to come to points where I couldn’t will my way through them. That created the perfect combination for us to have a great foundation."

COMING TO AUBURN

When Auburn hired Tommy Tuberville from Ole Miss in 1999, Tuberville prioritized hiring a team chaplain after seeing the impact Wes Yeary had in that role in Oxford. 

“I looked for the best person. Chette was an Auburn man, somebody who played for Coach Dye. He understood athletics,” Tuberville said. “There wasn’t anybody who made near the impact on all student-athletes – not just football – at Auburn and across the state than Chette Williams.”

Auburn’s football coach from 1999-2008, Tuberville witnessed Williams’ impact firsthand.

“Chette was fantastic,” Tuberville said. “He treated everybody the same. It wasn’t just football, it was all over the campus.”

A SPIRITUAL LEGACY

Williams and Yeary would team up a few years later to train chaplains to serve at campuses across the country, including former Auburn football players Mike Blanc, Rashan Frost and Wayne Dickens.

“He not only made an impact at Auburn, he made an impact all over the South,” Tuberville said. “It spread all over the country. Chette and I spoke at clinics all over the United States about what we were doing and how we were doing it. 

“There’s no telling how many hundreds of thousands of young people Chette Williams touched over the last 25 years.”

“A tragic loss for the Auburn family,” Auburn men’s basketball coach Bruce Pearl said. “Chette impacted hundreds of student-athletes, coaches, fans and staff members. He was the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. People came from all over the country to learn from Brother Chette how to do FCA the right way. He was an icon.”

"For more than two decades, Brother Chette was not only an incredible resource for the Auburn football program but a trusted friend and mentor to so many wihthin the Auburn community and Auburn family," athletics director John Cohen said. "His presence will be deeply missed, but his legacy and lasting guidance will never be forgotten."

"For 25 years, Rev. Chette Williams was unwavering in his devotion toward guiding and supporting our student-athletes," Auburn University president Dr. Chris Roberts said. "Chette was a steady presence and a source of comfort for all who sought his counsel. I admire the way he poured into our students, helping them develop into Auburn men and women of character and integrity. My sympathies are with his family and all of those in the Auburn Family to whom Chette meant so much." 

"It's very humbling," Williams said in 2017. "It takes my breath away seeing them mature and progress over the years. They were kids when they were here. Now, they're changing lives at major institutions. It is quite humbling. I give all glory and all honor to God for allowing me and others to pour into their lives.

"I'm like a proud father. Not just me, but Auburn University, the Auburn Family should be proud because they allowed me to come here. They gave me the opportunity to do what God has equipped me to do. These are the results."

Williams' transparency about his struggles as an Auburn football player in the 1980s made him relatable to student-athletes.

"Chette understood the ups and downs," said Blanc, the chaplain at the University of Miami, in 2017. "I think that helped his ministry, so that guys who had a rough time, or maybe didn't go to church, they felt that they could openly talk with Chette and say, ‘Hey, I know you kind of struggled through some stuff, how do I get through it?'"

"You see that legacy," said Frost, now a paster in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2017. "Guys who spent time under Brother Chette are coaches, they're husbands, they're fathers. They're leaders in their churches and they're leaders in their communities. So it's not just those of us who are on staff at FCA. His legacy is into homes, into jobs and beyond sports. That's the impact of what Brother Chette is doing."

In a recent letter to FCA supporters, Williams wrote, “The young people in our care are responding to the small voice of our savior Jesus Christ in real and personal ways, and we are grateful to be involved as God changes lives.”

COURAGE AMID ADVERSITY

In 2018, Williams received the James Owens Courage Award for displaying courage in the face of adversity. 

"It's quite an honor for me because I knew James a long time,” Williams said in 2018 of Auburn’s first Black scholarship football player. “When I played football at Auburn, James was a GA for a couple years.”

When Williams entered the ministry, Owens, a pastor himself, mentored him.

"I'm so appreciative of the Owens family for considering me as a recipient of this award," Williams said. "James Owens modeled for all of us courage and faith in the face of life's challenges.

"Ministers are humans, too. There's been a lot of challenges in my life. I look back on all the adversity, all the struggles, and I thank God for them, because they've made me who I am today."

Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on X: @jeff_shearer

Memorial Information

The family of Brother Chette Williams invites the public to a visitation at 12 p.m. CT on Saturday, December 21 at Lakeview Baptist Church in Auburn followed by a service at 1 p.m.

A memorial for Brother Chette will be held on Thursday, January 23, 2025, at 10 a.m. CT in Neville Arena on Auburn University’s campus.  Additional details will be announced at a later date.