On October 3, 1970, Bill Battle, an assistant to UT Head Football Coach Doug Dickey since 1966, was named head coach. He was the first Southeastern Conference head coach to have earned academic All-SEC recognition as a player and, at the time of his appointment, was the nation’s youngest head coach. Battle had a successful playing career as a three-year starter at Alabama and was a part of Coach Paul “Bear” Bryant’s first national championship team. He entered the coaching profession as a grad assistant at Oklahoma in 1963. In 1964 and 1965, he served as an assistant coach at Army while serving a two-year military tour. During his seven-year tenure as head coach at UT, his teams went 59-22-2, ranked three times in the Top-10, twice in the Top-20, and won four out of five bowl games.
Despite his record, he was forced out as head coach in 1976 to allow fan-favorite and UT-alumnus Johnny Majors to be recruited as head coach.
In 1981 while working for Golden Eagle Enterprises in Selma, Alabama, Battle signed “Bear” Bryant to a licensing agreement as the first university client of his new firm, Collegiate Licensing Company. CLC, located in Atlanta, is the nation’s oldest and largest marketing agency dedicated to providing domestic and international licensing services to the collegiate market. CLC has been instrumental in growing the US retail market for collegiate merchandise, and the royalties paid to member institutions have been used primarily for scholarships. Battle served as CLC’s president and CEO until 2002. The company became part of IMG sports and entertainment marketing company in 2007. Battle also served as chairman of the board of Licensing Partners International, created in 2001 to represent the licensing interests of noncollegiate sports properties, as well as corporate and entertainment properties.
In 2010 Battle was named to the board of directors of the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame. In March 2013 he was appointed athletic director for the University of Alabama.