Crimson Red Sports

Bill Battle is now an official part of the University of Alabama Athletic Department, the REC made it official tonight. Only kidding about making anything official but it was an interesting evening listening to him speak.

He started with how all of this happened, AD job, and how shocking it was when he received the initial call asking him to take the job. Paul Bryant Jr made the call and what a positive way for the University to ask him to come to Bama. He said it took a week of constant turmoil inside of him on whether to accept the job or not. He said his biggest problem was whether he could actually do the job, even though he was a businessman.

Bill also talked about his playing days in high school at West End in Birmingham and how bad their teams were then. They never won many games when he played but they did go 4-4-1 his senior year and the Birmingham News thought they had a great year. Regardless of his team's record, he was good enough to get a scholarship offer from Bear Bryant along with Butch Wilson, Leroy Jordan, Cotton Clark, Jimmy Sharpe, and some others, but what a team this class turned out to be at Bama. He then talked about his job as AD and what a challenge it has been so far. He explained that there are 21 sports teams at Bama and only two of them are profittable entities and it is his job to get them all in the profittable category. There were some of the other coaches in attendance, Anthony Grant, Sara Patterson, Jay Seawell, and some assistants of the coaches. Bill is very proud of Jay Seawell and the mens golf team, because they earned him his first National Championship as an Athletic Director.

I was anxious for the Q&A session to start because I had a couple of issues that I was going to ask about, but some of the others in the crowd were thinking like me. I wanted to know what is the status of the baseball field and is anything going to be done about student absenteeism at the football games. He said that they have in hand the plans for the new baseball complex but have not not presented it to the board as of yet. This will be a very expensive job and there will have to be some big donations to cover the cost. He also said it is looking as though the baseball field will not be moved from it's present location. As far as the student tickets issue, he said they have been looking very hard at that situation and there will be some rules changes for the students and tickets this year.

It was a great evening and I wish you all could have been there to enjoy as I did. I could sense that Bill is very proud and honored to be back on campus and his wife seemed to be just as happy. Roll Tide!!

Thanks for the report, J. Good stuff! I'm glad they are tackling the game day student absentee issue. I also hope they get the baseball stadium upgrade.

Did he say what the 2nd sport was that was making a profit along with football?

Thanks so much, Jamos.


Roll Tide!

Thanks Jamos   #+

No he didn't name the two but I would guess that gymnastics might be the other, they average over 10,000 at all of their events. But you have to factor in tv money as money made so I would think maybe basketball or softballl might have made a couple of bucks. :dunno:

Excellant report. Thanks.

Usually it's football and men's basketball.

Oh, and thanks for the report! 

Thanks for another excellent report J.  #+

Hey Jamos you are so kind to keep us abreast what is happening up close. It is really interesting to hear this talk about a great Baseball field. I too would like to see anybody that is missing return to the games. Thanks so my friend. Roll Tide Roll!