Lowder, Chette Williams in NY Times

[rolltoomer 0]

NYTimes.com has a very long investigative article on Lowder and his seeming control of Chette Williams--as well as the University and BOT. Lead-in talks about Williams' influence on the players.

Written by an Auburn guy.

It's a little chore to reach, have to free register, but worth it.

Curious as to why NY Times is so interested. The timing is also interesting.

They do go on to say that this kind of stuff goes on everywhere.

[MDM4AU 336]

NYTIMES.COM

January 3, 2005

SPORTS OF THE TIMES

Auburn Trustee Boosts Everyone, Including the Chaplain

By SELENA ROBERTS

LOOK for him among the Auburn faithful today. The Rev. Chette Williams is the one with access to the team's football practices, its athletic facility, its bus and the most intimate details of players' lives.

"Anything you had inside you, no matter what it was, you could tell him," said Reggie Torbor, a rookie with the Giants and a former star at Auburn. "You trust him like a father."

Williams is ubiquitous, at the center of Bible study for coaches, at the soul of Scripture sessions for players and in the middle as the Tigers link arms the night before games and sing:

I'm a hard-fighting soldier on the battlefield.

I keep on bringing souls to Jesus by the service that I give.

The gospel of Brother Chette is liquid. Since he arrived on campus in 1999, he has baptized 20 players. And to many, he is the revelation behind Auburn's undefeated season, healing them when Tommy Tuberville was nearly fired last year after the university president and boosters boarded the trustee Bobby Lowder's plane for a clandestine meeting with Louisville Coach Bobby Petrino.

"If you ask anyone in that program," Torbor said, "Brother Chette is the reason Auburn is where it is right now."

The Auburn base knows Williams as a gatekeeper for victory. The players know him as the caretaker of their secrets, whether personal or financial.

"He wants to help people," Torbor said. "That's the type of man he is. At the same time, him doing that would give off the impression of cheating and doing something he knows he shouldn't do. It's a fine line there. He helped us, but he didn't do it for us, he pointed us in the right direction."

But who directs Chette Williams?

He is not, Auburn officials insist, a salaried employee, despite being labeled as a hire of Tuberville's, despite the office he has at the athletic department and his listing on the Tigers' Web site as team chaplain.

"He is employed by the Fellowship of Christian Athletes," said Terry Windle, Auburn's associate athletic director. "He is paid by the F.C.A."

Williams is also on the payroll of powerful Auburn boosters, with none other than the bank tycoon Bobby Lowder as one of his primary benefactors.

As wealthy contributors gain more influence in college football - as donations soar and coaches' salaries inflate - the financing behind Williams illuminates the elasticity of a booster's reach into every last pocket of a program.

Neither Williams nor Lowder returned requests for interviews, but they are cozily linked by Chette Williams Ministries Inc., a nonprofit 501C3 charity.

Its address is Auburn Athletic Department, with its books kept by Windle "on my own time," he said. According to Lee County, Ala., property records, Windle is also named as the owner of Williams's Auburn house - valued at $346,050, three blocks from Tuberville's residence. Windle said that the records were inaccurate, and that he sold his house to Williams.

Who knew the F.C.A. paid its staff so well? If a supplement is needed, Williams may be able to turn to his ministry. In its 2003 990 tax filing, a form used by nonprofit organizations, Williams's ministry reported $73,335 in direct public support, including $30,000 from the Lowder family's foundation, according to tax documents filed for the same year by the Robert and Charlotte Lowder Foundation.

Of his total expenses, Williams gave $7,340 to Habitat for Humanity, paid for his Auburn-related travel costs and drew $55,824 in compensation as president for 20 hours of work per week. The list of officers for Chette Williams Ministries, Inc. - none of whom are compensated - is curious.

The vice president, Ben Thomas, is listed as a member of Auburn's event management staff and was the former resident director for Sewell Hall, the athletes' dormitory.

The chairman, Mike McCartney, a former Auburn board member, is a successful Alabama businessman who has a history of close associations with Lowder.

The treasurer, Wayne Hall, is a former Tigers defensive coordinator who is known as a leader in Lowder's posse that oversees everything Auburn. Hall became labeled as the instigator who helped Lowder undermine Coach Terry Bowden during a scandal in 1998.

As The Orlando Sentinel reported at the time, "Bowden dismissed Wayne Hall, a holdover from" former Coach Pat Dye's staff, "when Terry suspected Hall wasn't as devoted to N.C.A.A. rules as he demanded."

It isn't clear why a team chaplain would be so friendly with former Auburn football insiders. Surely, Williams doesn't need such untidy company.

Williams has become a celebrity in state football lore, popular on the speech circuit and as a radio guest. For N.C.A.A. rules purposes, it is important to know if his message is specifically aimed at athletes, including potential recruits.

Again, Williams declined to discuss the matter, but in a statement he released through Auburn, he said, "In my role as the Director of Fellowship of Christian Athletes, I provide spiritual advisement to students on the Auburn campus."

His ministry mission, however, doesn't square with his F.C.A. role. On tax forms, he paints a much more narrow picture, explaining that the purpose of his ministry is to work effectively with "Auburn University athletes, especially with the football team, to encourage and stimulate better relations between players, coaches and support staff, using the standards and examples set by Jesus Christ; provide opportunities to evangelize, disciple and develop leaders through one-on-one witnessing and systematic studies, prayer meetings and counseling."

Is Lowder invited to the prayer circles? Does he know all and see all through Brother Chette?

Not necessarily. Lowder may not have anything so manipulative in mind when he sends a $30,000 check to the team chaplain. But Lowder's past creates suspicion.

Why would Lowder invest so much money and have so many ties to a team chaplain?

The answer appears to be access and more access. For years, Lowder has paid handsomely to create his private wormholes into Auburn athletics. In 2003 and 2004, he donated at least $5 million toward Auburn athletics, the price to buy vicarious entry into the world of Tigers football for this 1964 Auburn grad.

His obsessive meddling has been infamous, if not nearly disastrous to the university. As a graduate of Auburn, I was a little nervous about the credibility of my diploma when the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools placed the university on probation last year, citing the micromanagement by Lowder.

Last month, the association removed the probation. But the disclosures about Lowder's influence and ethical conflicts have been endless this past year: 6 of the 14 trustees had financial ties to either Lowder or his business, Colonial Bank; The Opelika-Auburn News reported that the law firm of the trustee Jack Miller received $2.6 million in legal fees from the bank; as listed on Colonial Bank's Web page, Dye, the Auburn consultant and legendary ex-coach, is on its board; and the daughter of the university's interim president, Ed Richardson, who came aboard after William Walker resigned amid the Lowder tarmac scandal, is an employee of Colonial Bank.

"It hurt when she was brought into all this," Richardson said in a recent telephone interview. "She asked me if she should resign, and I said no."

Even though Lowder's abuse of trustee power has been exposed in investigations by the university's newspaper, The Plainsman, and his image has been lampooned in political cartoons statewide and he was asked to resign by The Mobile Register, Richardson has defended him. Richardson admitted there was a perception that Lowder is the institution's puppeteer, but Richardson referred to Lowder as a "convenient lightning rod."

"Bobby Lowder has done a lot of good for Auburn University," Richardson said.

But this is the issue for university presidents across the country faced with renegade boosters and trustees: Is their control for sale?

"There is no greater temptation for intrusion into presidential control and institutional mission than athletics when it comes to the board of trustees," Notre Dame's outgoing president, the Rev. Edward Malloy, told a forum sponsored by The Sports Business Journal last month. "The governing boards and many members of the governing boards have a huge incentive - for reasons we can all speculate about - to be excessively interested in athletics and to attempt to micromanage."

What is Lowder's motive? As an Auburn history professor, Wayne Flynt, wrote in an op-ed article for The Decatur (Ala.) Daily last February, "Whether because of his obsession with football - as some critics claim - or his determination to recast the school according to his own inaccurate and myopic understanding of a what a land-grant university ought to be, Lowder has used his political influence to pack the board with trustees beholden to him."

This began with Gov. George Wallace, who, after a handsome donation from Lowder, appointed him as a trustee to the university in 1983. Lowder hasn't let go, bullying any politician who has dared try to separate him from his Soprano-like hold on Auburn.

He sounds ominous, but physically Lowder is a slightly built man, with an affinity for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Money gives him strength. Lowder's influence has skyrocketed with his wealth. He has been listed as one of Forbes's most powerful people, and in 2003 the magazine estimated his total compensation from Colonial Bank at $1.6 million, with stock options valued at more than $3 million.

He has other investments, too, making his financial success stunning. According to property records, he owns several homes besides his Montgomery, Ala., estate, including a condominium in Naples, Fla., valued at $12 million and two homes in Auburn - a picket-fenced bungalow worth $168,970, four blocks from a stately, renovated residence appraised at $405,440.

Auburn athletics may be Lowder's greatest acquisition. He has been known to interview football coaches behind the athletic director's back and to orchestrate hirings and firings.

He is the prototype of the über-booster, the great threat to intercollegiate athletics. No doubt Bobby Lowder was prowling around the Sugar Bowl today, lording over his undefeated team, knowing all, seeing all, owning all.

There are surely Lowder knockoffs out there on the college landscape, testing the elasticity of their reach, pushing the limits for an all-access pass to the team. No telling who is under their thumb. Even a trusted team chaplain could be vulnerable.

E-mail: selenasports@nytimes.com

[ChattanoogaTiger 0]

I read the NYT daily online and my opinion of most of the articles is best stated by this quote (which I loosely refer to often)

Truth can suffer in propaganda (as it does in argument). Stephen Leacock: "I have always found that the only kind of a statement worth making is an overstatement. A half truth, like half a brick, is always more forcible as an argument than a whole one. It carries further."

[Tigermike 3,053]

It isn't clear why a team chaplain would be so friendly with former Auburn football insiders. Surely, Williams doesn't need such untidy company.

Possibly because he played on the same team with those players and coaches?

[quietfan 233]

Let me preface this by saying that I am a Christian myself and very comfortable with my relationship with my savior and friend, Jesus Christ. I also think that Wiliams has done wonderful work in helping so many of our guys find a spiritual anchor. And I am impressed when I see our guys praying for injured on the field.

BUT...I have been wondering about something ever since Wiliiams' role has become so public:

Recognizing that Auburn is a state school and as such has certain standards of separation of church and state to maintain, how much "religious indoctrination" has overtaken the football program? If a player happens to be a Hindu, or a Muslim, or an athiest, does that adversely affect his standing on the team? Is he treated equally by the players and the coaches? How much discrimination or peer pressure would he face if his own personal beliefs do not permit him to sing about "bringing souls to Jesus"? Might this have an adverse affect on recruiting a non-Christian kid? We're not Notre Dame or BYU, after all.

I don't know that this has become a problem, which is why I'm asking. And I'm sure I will incur the wrath of some conservatives for asking it. So let me state again: I acknowledge that Wiliams is doing a lot of good--it just raises a caution flag for me to see a state program so deeply entrenched in blatently Christian activities.

[kingfish 73]

Years ago I invited Christ Jesus into my heart and I am very proud of having the influence of a dedicated Christian like Chette Williams around our athletes. As for the New York Times, this is a paper that bears reading with much skepticism. One can take information and slant it anyone he desires. I sincerely doubt that the NYT would in anyway try and put AU in a good light.

Througout the buildings in Washington DC one sees the close ties our Christian forefathers had with the Heavenly Father. AS for separation of church and state this was not at all what the founding fathers had in mind. The whole concept came about from the writings of Hugo Black and has been blown out of porportion since.

We have what appears to be a team comprised of high character individuals playing for us which makes me proud indeed of being an AU tiger. To the bleeding heart liberals, the mere mention of the name of Jesus is not to be tolerated. This concept will of course change when one day ever knee shall bow and "every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord." Phil 2:11

War Eagle!

[AUesquire 1]

As a Christian, I find it refreshing to see the publicity Chette Williams and this team have received and I can see no real harm that comes from it. However, I understand the concern that some players or potential recruits may be alienated by it if they are not of that belief. I'd just have to say that I'll take my chances there.

[gabe_96 0]

There are some kids who won't be turned on by the christian stuff, but trust me, there are not a lot of hindu and atheist all-state hish school football players hanging out in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi.

As an atheist former auburn player, most any atheist is aware that he shouldn't flaunt his non-beliefs too strongly without being aware of the way it will shift the views of others. Such is the way of the world, tough luck we are in the minority.

More importantly, many of the potential big time recruits come from a socio-economic group that makes them very susceptible to becoming apart of the criminal class. These folks often have two choice, path 1) follow the straight and narrow path, avoiding the "sins" of alcohol(drugs), excessive skirt chasing , self-pity and thuggery or path 2) expect what everyone else expects of yourself and become a thug.

Using the methods perfected by the christian cult is one of the more effective ways to help these kids to follow path 1. It benefits us Auburn fans because we get wins and it benefits the kids because they learn a lot about work ethic and many of them have profitable careers in and out of football. Maybe their kids will have teh luxury of being able to read philosophy books and investigate the logic of a god and a immortal Jesus...but these kids usually have more important questions on there mind like, when does my dad get out of prison, is my kid brother who still lives at home getting beat by my mommas boyfriend etc. How will I support my family in two years...they have to put their nose to the grindstone and just work, no pondering, no pussyfooting and no pontificating on what is wrong with the world.

Tubberville has done a much better job of getting fewer kids from the troubled background, but in order to have top notch talent you have to get a certain percent of these at-risk kids and we all want top notch talent right? don't be silly anyway chette williams is on the payroll because of all the dollars auburn football brings in, he isn't being paid by taxpayer dollars...if he helps produce 1 reggie torbor every year he is earning his keep and he is probably doing a lot more than that and the kids that are smart of enough to critically analyze the process of "getting souls for jesus", well welcome to over-educated middle class.

[quietfan 233]

Valuable and interesting viewpoints, all. Thanks.

...and again, I wasn't trying to start a "separation of church & state" debate--I'll save that for the political forum. Just curious as to whether any kid felt left out or ostracized because of his personal beliefs.

[DKW 86 7,440]

"Jayson Blair," that is all you need to know about the NYT.

[tombigbeetiger 223]

DITTOS GALORE FOR THE KINGFISH !!!!!!!!!!!....one day gabe will stand before GOD ALMIGHTY,so he will have a chance to say face to face, "hey dude, don't you realize that you don't exist?"......i will have plenty of things to answer for,but non-belief is not one of them.....nobody dies an atheist

[Shug2003 1]

It doesn't bother me a bit! Lord knows there are enough bad things going on in this world that any good that Chette Williams does with the players at Auburn SHOULD be well received. Sometimes, I think we nit-pik everything to death and this is one case that I am frankly flabbergasted at. I wrote her an email and told her to find something meaningful to do and thank God the NY times is not well read in the south.....l

[Tigermike 3,053]

The writer of this article will be a guest on the Finebaum show tomorrow afternoon.

[gabe_96 0]

tombigbee...IF I ever see hima nd can tlak to him..."I'll say wow you do exist and does that mean you made your son into a human type replica...and then had him tortured to death...pretty cool I guess..... well I was just using the brain, which you gave me by the way, to the best of my ability to figure out what the truth was...My brain kept telling me you didn't exist, that it was just a myth that people used to make themselves feel better, and it was also useful for the higher classes of humans to use these myths to get the peons to do what they wanted and not make to much trouble...why did you give me such an imperfect brain?I trusted you to give me a good brain that I could trust in so I didn't have to rely on what a bunch of hucksters told me... Well I guess the brain you gave me let me down, hopefully you won't burn me in a dungeon somewhere with the devil just because of that right...I mean I did my best to support my family and be a good person...that counts for something right...if you need me to go back down to earth and be a televangelist or go try and convert a bunch of africans I can do that, if it will get me into heaven. Can I just ask that you try to communicate your desires a little more clearly next time? the brain you gave me last time doesn't understand nuanced stories written 2000 years ago very well, all the information I was reading in the bible, you helped write that right? Well i could interpret it to mean a bunch of different things and half the time the different things were telling me to do different stuff. Maybe it was just my defective brain, but I could give you abunch of examples if you have the time to talk to a mere mortal such as myself...and if you don't have time to talk with me and just plan on burning me somewhere for eternity then I think you are kind of a jerk, when I help create someone such as my son, I'll talk to him all day and I'd never punish him without exhausting all efforts at communications with him first...this especially includes talking...with my type of brain, any other type of communication is not going to work very well, my wife can help you understand this if you don't believe it. Maybe some women, astologists, literature professors and artists are good at getting your symbolism and "signals", but trust me that stuff just ani't getting it...maybe we could talk through some of your attempts at communication and I can tell you what I thought it meant...this might help me...you do want to help right?

Maybe you could just set me up with a good brain next time? I wasted a bunch of time trying to use this conflicted set of theories called LOGIC when I was on Earth and now I guess it must have all been a bunch of crap.

I really don't expect to have the opportunity to have this conversation, but i would surely look forward to it...I bet I could learn a lot.

[TheGreenHornet 0]

...I bet I could learn a lot

Someday... Someday-my friend you will have a chance to know and learn- far more than you ever wanted to. Trust me in this.... :

[gabe_96 0]

..

.I bet I could learn a lot

Someday... Someday-my friend you will have a chance to know and learn- far more than you ever wanted to.  Trust me in this....   :

136041[/snapback]

What reasonably intelligent person would "trust" someone they have never even met about such things as what one may or may not learn regarding supernatural deities? Judging by the evidence you have presented, you know as much about supernatural deities as Enis knows about catching the Duke boys.

[Tigermike 3,053]

To get back on subject, I will tell you all again.

SELENA ROBERTS, the writer of this article will be a guest on the Finebaum show this afternoon.

[Proud Tiger 4,261]

Written by an Auburn guy.

135409[/snapback]

Selena is a guy? That explains it all

And now Lowder controls the Chaplain too? Wow I sometimes come across as defending him but now I am getting downright jealous. I have decided that there is a group of Auburn people who will just blame Lowder anytime there is a remotely negative issue concerning Auburn.

I can say for a fact (something not often presented in articles concerning Lowder) that Lowder is not Chette's only supporter. I have generously supported him since his beginning and all my checks have been made to the FCA-Auburn Chapter.

[Proud Tiger 4,261]

IF I ever see hima nd can tlak to him..."I'll say wow you do exist

136019[/snapback]

gabe....not to belabor a religious discussion in this forum but I can't help but make a comment. I respect your position and but wish I could reach you. After all that's my Christian responsibility. I would only say one thing.........if everyone could see

Him there would be no unbelievers and probably no other religions. The whole point you are missing is that you have to accept Him on faith.

Just for fun, sit down and make a list of all the things you do believe and yet have never seen and perhaps defy logic. You might be surprised. Peace

[CCTAU 3,345]

If I'm wrong, I've lost nothing.

If you are wrong, you've lost everything!

We each have a choice. I choose not to take the chance.

[rolltoomer 0]

Written by an Auburn guy.

135409[/snapback]

Selena is a guy? That explains it all

"guy: syn. person"--Webster's 9th New Collegiate Dictionary

[Shug2003 1]

Man, sounds like gabe96 is seriously overmedicated OR seriously in need of medication.

[TrueBlue72 0]

What strikes me about the article is that the author quotes from the OA News! The NY Times uses the OA News as a source???? It sounds like the author has been infected by the Paul Davis virus and is hoping to spread it nationwide. Her other quote is from one of the anti-Lowder professors who loves to spout off negativity regarding his employer since he is immune from any accountability due to the outdated tenure provisions.

[kingfish 73]

Just now getting back to this site and read gabe96 comments and couldn't help but notice that he not only has missed the boat but is no where near the dock. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is not based on the marvelous brain we all have but is determined by the free will that God instilled in each of us. For the finite mind to even attempt to underestand the infinite is far beyond the logic gabe96 professes to hold so dearly. For if he first mets God after his earthly demise he will not only not be asking any questions he will not be doing any talking. The issue is a heart issue and not a brain issue. For the scriptures tell us that "the fool has said in his that there is no God." [PSalm 14:1].

There was a time when I too thought there was no such thing as a God in heaven who created and loved the world so much that He gave His Son to pay the sin debt for those who would accept it. I put God in the category as the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, etc. And it was not until I began in earnst to seek the truth that my eyes were finally opened to the truth. I had believed in the writings of infidels and felt because of their education and skills at tearing down all things holy that they must be correct. But upon seeking the truth I found it. Perhaps gabe96 will do the same thing one day and be in a similar position to warn others of the deadend path they walk. For this decision is of far more importance than winning any football that AU will ever play. And I do love AU football.

You guys on this board are all enjoyable and I deeply enjoy all your input. As fun as AU football is lets all keep our priorities lined up properly.

War Eagle!

[mcgufcm 4,107]

on the article i find the writer to be an impressively cynical person. she really doesn't seem capable of believing that a guy like chette williams understands: the only way to fulfill the great commission is to surround yourself with "untidy company." Jesus hung out with whores, tax collectors (used to be a bad thing... i gues the IRS still is ), and poor fishermen. not exactly a good place to cast the latest hallmark movie special.

if she had taken the time to talk with more players instead of just one, who she all but laughed at and called naive, she would've found out that almost all of them swear by chette williams and the discipleship that he does. that has nothing to do with bobby lowder whether that fits into her conspiracy theory or not. and believe it or not, people who work for the fca or campus crusade have to raise funds annually to pay their salary. i don't think it's a bad idea for chette williams to use the connections he has through the team to hit up some rich folks for money or to accept a house from a friend. after all, that just goes to show that when you trust God, He provides.

as for the potetial negative impact of losing out on an atheistic or muslim, etc. recruit, i would simply say it's worth it. tommy tuberville's job is to recruit and coach a team with superior players that are unified to one goal and to build them into the best and most educated men they can be. if he finds that recruiting guys and sharing the Gospel with them is the best way to do that, he should do exactly that. it's the best way to create good men and win games. it's what we pay him for.

to the notion that chette and tommy use Christianity as a simple way of pulling a "thug" out of the dredges of society and making him a more efficient football player, that's as cynical (not to mention silly) as anything in that printed article. i know a LOT of guys on this team. while some of them may embrace a hip-hop look or culture, very few of them come from "a socio-economic group that makes them very susceptible to becoming apart of the criminal class." jason campbell is from a small mississippi town with almost nothing in it. ben obomanu is from selma with as nice a family as i've ever met. we've got a lot of guys from academies in tennessee. i can only think of three guys: junior rosegreen, stanley mcclover, and pat sims (all from dillard high in fort lauderdale), that even come from what most would call a "thug school." and i don't know any of them personally so i won't presume to know their economic status simply by looking at the color of their skin. i think that's really what you were implying, gabe, b/c i really don't think that comment was directed toward the brandon coxes from hewitt-trussville, alabama of the world. and that's not very "over-educated" of you.

on a personal note, i don't like it when people who don't know me, anything about me, or anything about their audience in general try to speak down at me simply because they believe their are somehow more enlightened than the rest of us. i'm from a middle class family. i was accepted to Harvard for undergrad and chose not to go. i am about to complete two undergraduate degrees here at Auburn then i'm moving on to law school. i've been all over the u.s., to italy, england, france, austria, and russia mostly on my own money but partially on money i had to raise to go to russia with campus crusade. i would all but guarantee that you are not any more educated than me although, since i don't know you, i won't deny that you could be equally educated. in the future, you should try to be less arrogant when you are having intelligent conversation with strangers. it's not very endearing.

on a final note, gabe, here's a hypothetical you should consider. say one day in the summer you were wandering around the side of a pool. you look down and see a pocket watch, but you know for a fact that no one has been here today. also there is the thought that there is no particular reason to have a pocket watch beside a pool. would you look at watch therefore and reason that over the course of time all the elements necessary to make a watch just happened to fall perfectly into place to create the watch you are holding? probably not right? that'd be ridiculous. you'd look at it and say someone made this watch and someone put it here. why then do you look at the miracle of human life, which is thousands upon thousands of times more intricate than a pocket watch, and assume through logic that somehow all the elements just fell into place to create your body. even if you don't believe in Christ, logic says there has to be a maker to jump start all the miracles you see everyday.