Bill Battle, who won a national championship as an Alabama football player and later became UA’s athletics director after a highly successful turn in the business world, has died, UA announced Thursday. He was 82.

Bill Battle III, who was athletic director at his alma mater, Alabama, where he played for Paul “Bear” Bryant’s first national championship team, coached the Tennessee Volunteers and also founded the Collegiate Licensing Company,

Bill Battle, former director of athletics for the University of Alabama and a legendary figure in college athletics, has passed away at the age of 82.