College football lost one of its most cherished figures as Bill Battle, former Tennessee head coach and Alabama athletic director, passed away on Thursday at the age of 82. Battle

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,