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,

Former Tennessee football coach and Alabama athletic director Bill Battle died Thursday morning at the age of 82.