KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Former Tennessee football head coach Bill Battle, who led the Volunteers to five bowl games and three top-10 poll finishes from 1970-76, passed away at the age of 82 on Thanksgiving morning.
William “Bill” Raines Battle III compiled a 55-22-2 record in seven seasons with four bowl victories. Today, his 55 wins rank fourth all-time in UT history, while his .723 winning percentage is sixth in Vol annals. Including his time as an assistant coach, Battle coached players who earned 24 All-America accolades and 51 first-team All-SEC honors, including the likes of Chip Kell, Bobby Majors, Jackie Walker, Larry Seivers and Condredge Holloway, who he signed in 1971.
Battle arrived at Tennessee in 1966 as an assistant to Hall of Fame coach Doug Dickey where he served three seasons and was part of the Vols’ 1967 and 1969 SEC championships. In 1970, when Dickey left for Florida, Battle assumed the head coaching position at age 28, becoming the youngest coach at the time.
Battle’s first season of 1970 saw Tennessee reel off 10 straight wins to close the year highlighted by a 24-0 shutout of Alabama on The Third Saturday in October against his former coach, Bear Bryant. Battle’s Vols defeated Air Force, 34-13, in the Sugar Bowl as Majors’ 57-yard punt return touchdown in the third quarter put the game away. At age 29, Battle guided Tennessee to an 11-1 overall record, an SEC runner-up finish and a No. 4 Associated Press poll final ranking.
Success continued in 1971 with the Vols entering the regular season finale at 9-1. That contest saw Battle go up against Joe Paterno and his undefeated Penn State Nittany Lions in front of a national television audience on ABC. No. 5 Penn State, winners of 15 straight and heavy favorites, threw four interceptions. Majors had two punt returns for 82 yards and a touchdown, and All-American Conrad Graham returned a fumble 76 yards for a score as Battle bested Paterno, 31-11. The Vols then topped No. 18 Arkansas in the Liberty Bowl, 14-13, with Battle finishing off a 10-2 season and a No. 9 final ranking.
In 1972, Battle named Holloway Tennessee’s starting quarterback. With a national TV audience tuned in, the sophomore dazzled during a dominant, 34-3 season-opening victory at Georgia Tech, while becoming the first Black player to start at quarterback on an SEC team.
That same fall under Battle saw the Vols play their first night game in Neyland Stadium against Penn State, and Battle once again would get the best of Paterno. Junior tailback Haskel Stanback punched in a pair of rushing touchdowns, and the Vols triumphed under the lights of Neyland, 28-21. Battle finished off his second straight 10-2 campaign with a 24-17 victory over No. 10 LSU in the Bluebonnet Bowl in Houston with Holloway earning MVP honors.
Battle coached four more seasons, and his 1974 team beat No. 10 Maryland, 10-3, in the Liberty Bowl.
Battle began his collegiate career at Alabama, where he went on to become a three-year starter playing both offense and defense. He was a member of Bryant’s first national championship team in 1961. He got into the coaching profession as a graduate assistant at Oklahoma in 1963 before serving as assistant coach at Army from 1964-65 under Paul Dietzel.
Battle was an innovator, founding the Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC) in 1981 where he served as its president and CEO until 2002. He returned to his alma mater in 2013 to serve as director of athletics for four years.
The Birmingham, Alabama, native was the recipient of the National Football Foundation’s Outstanding Contributions to Amateur Football Award in 2008, and he was inducted into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame in 2011.
Bill Battle Year-By-Year Coaching Record
Year; Record; Bowl
1970; 11-1 (4-1 SEC); Sugar Bowl def. Air Force
1971; 10-2 (4-2 SEC); Liberty Bowl def. Arkansas
1972; 10-2 (4-2 SEC); Bluebonnet Bowl def. LSU
1973; 8-4 (3-3 SEC); Gator Bowl lost to Texas Tech
1974; 7-3-2 (2-3-1 SEC); Liberty Bowl def. Maryland
1975; 7-5 (3-3 SEC)
1976; 6-5 (2-4 SEC)
Totals; 55-22 (22-18-1 SEC); five bowl games
“Coach Battle was a wonderful addition to our staff and was very popular with the players. He was a terrific recruiter and had great vision and initiatives for our football team, especially offensively. He did an outstanding job as a football coach after I left Tennessee. From there, he was one of the remarkable stories in the sports business world with his company, Collegiate Licensing Company. He will be deeply missed.”
– Doug Dickey, former Tennessee head coach (1964-69) and Director of Athletics
“When Coach Battle took over for Coach Dickey, he was a tremendous leader for us. We did not miss a beat, and we continued to have outstanding teams. He was supportive to us as players. He adopted us as his school and was always loyal to us. Coach Battle was a fantastic businessman and an even better person. We shared a great friendship.”
– Phillip Fulmer, former Tennessee head coach, Director of Athletics and captain on Battle’s teams (1968-71)
