Bill Battle, the 2008 NFF Outstanding Contribution to Amateur Football Award recipient who played at Alabama, coached at Tennessee and founded the Collegiate Licensing Company, passed away Nov. 28. He was 82.

After accepting the NFF OCAF Award in 2008, Battle joined the NFF Board of Trustees, serving in emeritus capacity until his passing. He also served as the athletics director at Alabama from 2013 to 2017.

"Bill Battle did it all in the world of college athletics, and he did it with class and style," said NFF President & CEO Steve Hatchell. "A player, coach, administrator, and marketing innovator, Bill Battle ranks among the most influential figures of his generation in college athletics. He knew how to motivate on the playing field and in the boardroom, and he was one of the people who understood the future of college athletics, helping lay the foundation for many of the advances which we all enjoy today. We were particularly grateful for his service on the NFF Board of Trustees, and we are deeply saddened by his loss. He was a friend to all and a wonderful man and great American."

A legend in the world of collegiate marketing, Bill Battle leveraged his experiences as a player for Bear Bryant at Alabama and as a head coach at Tennessee to build the Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC) into a major force in the multi-billion-dollar annual market for collegiate merchandise, earning hundreds of million in royalties for his clients over the years.

His passion for collegiate athletics and a strong interest in marketing led him to launch Golden Eagle Enterprises in 1981, and he landed his coach, Bear Bryant, and alma mater, Alabama, as his first licensing client.

By 1983, Battle had signed eight other schools and moved the renamed Collegiate Licensing Company to Atlanta, Georgia from Selma, Alabama. With an unrelenting focus on providing his clients with greater exposure and the broadest range of licensing services, Battle built CLC into a national leader in the multi-billion annual market for collegiate licensed merchandise. Battle sold the enterprise to IMG in 2007. At the time, his client list encompassed more than 200 colleges, universities, bowls and conferences, representing more than 75 percent of the annual market at the time of the sale.

A member of Hall of Fame Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant's first national championship team in 1961, Battle was a three-year starter from 1960-62 for the Crimson Tide, earning spots on the UA All-Decade Team for the 1960s as first-team tight end and second-team defensive end.

Battle followed his playing days by entering the coaching profession as an assistant at the University of Oklahoma under Hall of Fame Coach Bud Wilkinson. From 1964-1965, he served at the U.S. Military Academy, including work as an assistant football coach under Paul Dietzel.

He arrived at the University of Tennessee in 1966 as an assistant to Hall of Fame Coach Doug Dickey, and in 1970, when Dickey left for Florida, Battle, 28 years-old, assumed the head coaching position, becoming the youngest coach at the time, tallying a 59-22-2 record and five straight bowl appearances with three squads finishing in the top ten. His 55 wins rank fourth all-time in UT history, while his .723 winning percentage is sixth in Vol annals.

Following the sale of CLC to IMG, Battle returned to his alma mater in 2013 to serve as director of athletics for four years. During his tenure, Alabama produced three NCAA team national championships (including football in 2015), 10 SEC team championships in five different sports,15 NCAA individual champions, 43 Academic All-Americans, including six Academic All-Americans of the Year and 16 NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship awardees.

Following his tenure as AD, Battle continued on at UA as special assistant to The University of Alabama president where he assisted Dr. Stuart R. Bell in a variety of initiatives benefiting the University and the Department of Athletics. 

A native of Birmingham, Ala., Battle was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of fame in 1981 and was the first member inducted into the National Collegiate Licensing Association Hall of Fame in 2000. He was named one of Street & Smith's 20 Most Influential People in College Athletics.

He has also been inducted into the International Licensing Industry Merchandisers' Association Hall of Fame (2008), the National Association of Collegiate Marketing Administrators Hall of Fame (2010), Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame (2011), the Sporting Goods Industry Hall of Fame (2016) and the Alabama Business Hall of Fame (2017).

He served on the boards of Birmingham Southern College, the Bryant-Jordan Student-Athlete Foundation, The University of Alabama A-Club Educational & Charitable Foundation, the Crimson Tide Foundation and along with his wife, Mary, on UAB's Stem Cell Institute Board.

Battle earned a master's degree from the University of Oklahoma and a bachelor's degree from the University of Alabama. He received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from The University of Alabama and an Honorary Doctor of Law from Birmingham Southern College.