Considered one of the fastest NFL players of all time,[1] Gault was a member of the Bears team that won Super Bowl XX.

He had two receptions for 19 yards in Griffin's 7–7 tie against Valdosta in the AAAA State Championship Game during his junior year.

[9] During the regular season of his freshman year in 1979, Gault caught three passes for 95 yards, including a 69-yard touchdown in Tennessee's 51–18 win over Utah.

He returned a kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown to provide Tennessee's lone score in the team's 30–6 loss to Pittsburgh.

[11] Calling the latter play for the Vol Network, long-time broadcaster John Ward shouted, "Ladies and gentlemen, Willie Gault has run all the way to the State Capitol.

[13] During his junior year in 1981, Gault caught 22 passes for 479 yards and four touchdowns while continuing to split time with Miller.

[15] In Tennessee's 28–21 win over Wisconsin in the 1981 Garden State Bowl, Gault returned a kickoff 87 yards for the Vols' first touchdown of the game.

[15] As part of an explosive receiving corps that included Mike Miller, Lenny Taylor and Darryal Wilson, Gault registered a team-leading 50 catches for 668 yards and four touchdowns.

[19] Gault caught a 52-yard touchdown pass in Tennessee's 35–28 win over Alabama, helping the Vols break an 11-year losing streak to the Tide.

[23] Gault's mark of 4,035 career all-purpose yards is the second-highest tally in school history, trailing only Stanley Morgan's 4,642.

[26] At the 1982 SEC championships, he again set the 110-meter high hurdles record, and won the Commissioner's Trophy for the highest overall score.

[28] At the 1983 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships, Gault won the 60-yard high hurdles and the 60-yard dash with times of 6.98 and 6.18, respectively.

[32] Gault was selected by the Chicago Bears in the first round (18th overall pick) in the 1983 NFL draft, and had an immediate impact during his rookie season.

[40] At the end of the 1985 regular season, Gault helped organize teammates to perform the "Super Bowl Shuffle", a rap song and music video that raised money for a local charity.

In his autobiography published that year, McMahon suggested that Gault was undependable, and only put forth his best effort if the game was on national television.

He placed second behind frequent winner Darrell Green in 1986, having defeated fellow Olympic sprinter Ron Brown in the semifinals.

In the Bears' 23–19 win over Washington in the 1984 playoffs, Gault beat Green for a 75-yard touchdown reception after getting held without a catch in the first half.

He had a few appearances on Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide playing himself alongside sportscaster Van Earl Wright and most recently was featured in the series finale.

In Season 4 Episode 8 of Friday Night Lights, the Dillon Lions radio color-man is named Willie Gault as a tribute.

On June 24, 2006, Gault set a world record of 10.72 seconds in the master's 100 meters, in the division for athletes aged 45 to 49.

[65] In April 2016, Gault was ordered to pay $206,571 to settle a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit regarding his actions in a scheme to inflate share prices of the medical device company Heart Tronics Inc, for which he had been co-CEO.