In May, Flint W. Fowler, longtime president of the Boys & Girls Club of Greater St. Louis (BGSTL) announced his retirement at the end of 2024.
Fowler joined BGCSTL in 1996 when it was the Herbert Hoover Boys & Girls Club and guided the nonprofit from one city location to 11 sites now serving some 14,000 youths throughout the region.
Fowler will leave big shoes to fill as of Jan. 1, 2025 and Brandon Williams says the challenge is in his size.
Williams, 40, a St. Louis native, former NFL player and XFL executive has been named the organization’s incoming president and CEO.
Before joining BGCSTL in 1996, Fowler worked with INROADS, Upward Bound, the Boy Scouts and Operation Teamwork. Williams brings a diverse, but different, background to the role.
His portfolio includes sports broadcasting, business-to-business marketing, sales and innovations, motivational speaking and he’s the author of “Millionaire Mindset—7 Principles Athletes Need for Financial Freedom.”
Williams comes to BGCSTL from his position with the St. Louis Battlehawks where he served as vice president of team business and event operations.
“Flint has been a pillar in this community for 28 years and has a lot of well-earned respect for the work he’s done and the person he is,” Williams said.
“I’m excited to work beside him for as long as he’s available to build the next strategy and blueprint for what the future of this club can look like and how we will impact kids around the metro area.”
Leaning into the advice and wisdom of his elders has been a mainstay in Williams’ life. There’s a 7- and 11-year gap between his younger siblings, so when they were born he inherited the monikermonikers of “big brother and role model.”
“I was the only child for a while and I hung out with adults, learning and gaining knowledge from them and my mentors,” he recalled.
Williams, with the support of his parents and a couple uncles, started playing football at an early age, particularly at Mathews-Dickey Boys & Girls Club. After graduating from Hazelwood East High School, he enrolled at the University of Wisconsin where he majored in communications.
In 2006 he was drafted into the NFL and for five seasons he played for the San Francisco 49ers, the St. Louis Rams and the Pittsburgh Stealers. Injuries, including a torn oblique and torn labrum, fueled his desire to leave the gridiron.
Willaims said he didn’t have “a solid vision” of what to do next but did know he wanted to get into the world of professional broadcasting. After participating in the NFL’s “Broadcast Bootcamp” at 26, he was invited in 2010 to join the “Big Ten Network,” a channel dedicated to Big Ten Conference sports.
While maintaining the broadcasting gig for nine seasons, Williams pursued other interests in financial services, corporate leadership development and becoming a certified life coach.
He left Wisconsin and came back to St. Louis as the pandemic hit in 2020. He briefly worked for a construction staffing company while pursuing his MBA before joining Anheuser Busch’s “innovations team” managing beverage products from conception to distribution.
In 2022, he went to work for the St. Louis Battlehawks, where his team produced and marketed games, secured sponsorship and more.
When asked how such a wide and diverse employment background will influence his leadership at BGCSTL. Williams said his career emphasizes how everyone, including children, should take “every moment like it’s the last opportunity” they’ll ever get.
“There are specific ways that will give you a higher probability of making your dreams come true. For example, when I went to get my MBA, I knew that would increase the probability of me becoming an executive in sports. I had a goal, and I got the outcome I wanted because I leveraged education and experience into an opportunity,” he said.
When asked how he will implement some of his “Millionaire Mindset” principles at BGCSTL, Williams insists chasing “money” will not be among them.
“It’s not even close to being about money because money flows to solutions,” Williams explained.
“If you have a solution to a problem, money will flow to you. If you don’t have the right mindset to believe that you are the solution, then you’re going to put a cap on how much you can make or what job you should take.
“Part of the millionaire mindset is helping kids create a really safe environment where they can literally obtain greater futures; have the self-actualization and confidence that they have committed themselves to doing something and therefore there will be a ROI (return on investment) to the time they’ve spent pursuing that something.
“That mindset is a game-changer and once you get a group of people to think like that, it’s powerful, it can change communities and cities over time.”
Is there pressure in accepting a role he’s never had before?
“Yes,” Williams quickly answered.
“Coming into this position you must have a bit of naivety about the weight of it because, if you think about how heavy it is, it will crush you. But, for me, pressure is a privilege. When I was in the NFL, I used to get butterflies before every game. That’s how I knew I was ready.
“If you’re doing something that doesn’t have pressure, then why are you really doing it?”
Sylvester Brown Jr. is the Deaconess Foundation Community Advocacy Fellow.