National Football Foundation

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 $4 billion collegiate merchandise market, earning more than $800 million in royalties for his clients over the years.

His passion for the 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 a unrelenting focus on providing his clients greater exposure and the broadest range of licensing services, Battle built CLC into a national leader in the $4 billion annual market for collegiate licensed merchandise. Now, the nation's oldest and largest collegiate licensing company, the company boasts more than 200 colleges, universities, bowls and conferences as clients, representing more than 75 percent of the current annual market. In 2007, Battle sold the company to IMG, and he remains active in the company, serving as its chairman with his son Pat overseeing the day-to-day operations as president.

A member of Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant's first national championship team in 1961, Bryant followed his playing days by entering the coaching profession as an assistant at the University of Oklahoma. From 1964-1965, he served at the U.S. Military Academy, including work as an assistant football coach. 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.

A native of Birmingham, Ala., Battle was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of fame in 1982 and was the first member inducted into the National Collegiate Licensing Association Hall of Fame in 2000. He has been named one of Street & Smith's 20 Most Influential People in College Athletics. He currently serves on the boards of Collegiate Images and Birmingham Southern College.  He holds a master's degree from the University of Oklahoma and a bachelor's degree from the University of Alabama.