This is an opinion tribute.

Win or lose, Brother Chette was always there — as a player and in prayer — for Auburn.

Auburn lost one of its most loved and respected characters Sunday night as the former linebacker and longtime team chaplain died in an accident on Lake Martin. Rev. Chette L. Williams was 61.

Williams was attempting to leave his 2005 Bennington 2575 RFS pontoon boat when he fell into the water near a dock at Kowaliga Restaurant on Lake Martin, according to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency.

Read all of Carol Robinson’s report here.

Williams, known affectionately by many as “Brother Chette,” played for Auburn from 1982 to 1984. The Tigers won the Sugar Bowl, Liberty Bowl and Citrus Bowl while he was on the team, and Williams was teammates with Heisman-winning running back Bo Jackson.

Williams went on to serve in the ministry in Spartanburg, S.C. and as a pastor in New Orleans and Mobile after he was licensed as a minister in 1987 and ordained in 1988, according to his bio on the university website.

Williams was named Auburn’s football chaplain in 1999 under then-coach Tommy Tuberville.

“Heartbroken to hear the news about Chette Williams,” Tuberville said on X. “Brother Chette was a remarkable man who led hundreds of young people to the Lord through the years.”

Williams authored a book titled “Hard Fighting Soldier: Finding God in Trials, Tragedies, and Triumphs,” telling the story of Williams’ personal journey to faith and out of a dark time at the beginning of his Auburn career.

“As a player in the 1980s, some of Williams’ Auburn teammates said he ‘wasn’t worth praying for,‘” part of the book’s synopsis reads. “He was a mean, bitter, angry young man, and when Coach Pat Dye kicked him off the team, nobody was surprised. With God’s help, Williams turned his life around and he vowed to help others to do the same.”

Williams also authored “The Broken Road,” a book chronicling 11 football players’ mission trip to the Dominican Republic prior to Auburn’s run to the BCS National Championship in 2010.

“Week by week, Brother Chette (as the players know him) and the Auburn coaches led the team to a deeper understanding of who they were and what really matters in the world,” the book’s synopsis reads.

Brother Chette has always been there for Auburn. His spirit remains strong.

Rest in peace and power, Rev. Williams.

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JD Crowe is the cartoonist for Alabama Media Group and AL.com. He won the RFK Human Rights Award for Editorial Cartoons in 2020. In 2018, he was awarded the Rex Babin Memorial Award for local and state cartoons by the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists. Follow JD on Facebook, Twitter @Crowejam and Instagram @JDCrowepix. Give him a holler @[email protected].