SAD NEWS: Tennessee Football Head Coach Passes Away
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Bill Battle, former head coach of Tennessee football, passed away on Thanksgiving morning at the age of 82. During his tenure from 1970 to 1976, Battle guided the Volunteers to five bowl games, three top-10 finishes, and a 55-22-2 record. His 55 wins rank fourth in Tennessee’s history, and his .723 winning percentage is sixth. Among the players he coached, 24 earned All-America honors, and 51 received first-team All-SEC recognition, including notable names like Chip Kell, Bobby Majors, Jackie Walker, Larry Seivers, and Condredge Holloway, the first Black quarterback to start in the SEC.
Battle joined Tennessee in 1966 as an assistant under Hall of Fame coach Doug Dickey, contributing to SEC championships in 1967 and 1969. At age 28, he became the Vols’ head coach in 1970, making him the youngest head coach in college football at the time.
His first season was marked by a 10-game win streak, including a 24-0 victory over Alabama and Bear Bryant, Battle’s former coach. Tennessee capped the season with a 34-13 Sugar Bowl win over Air Force, finishing 11-1 and ranked No. 4 in the AP poll.
In 1971, the Vols went 10-2, highlighted by a 31-11 upset over undefeated Penn State and a 14-13 Liberty Bowl victory against No. 18 Arkansas. In 1972, Battle made history by starting Condredge Holloway at quarterback, who dazzled in a season-opening 34-3 win over Georgia Tech. That year also saw Tennessee’s first night game at Neyland Stadium, a 28-21 win over Penn State. The season concluded with a 10-2 record and a Bluebonnet Bowl win over No. 10 LSU.
Battle’s tenure included another Liberty Bowl victory in 1974, a 10-3 win over No. 10 Maryland. After stepping away from coaching, he made his mark off the field by founding the Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC) in 1981, serving as its president and CEO until 2002. He later returned to Alabama in 2013 as athletic director, a role he held for four years.
A Birmingham, Alabama native, Battle played both offense and defense as a three-year starter at Alabama, contributing to Bryant’s first national championship team in 1961. He began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Oklahoma in 1963 before serving as an assistant at Army.
Battle’s contributions were widely recognized, earning him the National Football Foundation’s Outstanding Contributions to Amateur Football Award in 2008 and induction into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame in 2011.