USC Trojans Athletic Director Pat Haden is retiring on June 30th, the Associated Press is reporting. Following his retirement, he will be in charge of guiding the renovation of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for one-year.
“Beginning July 1st, 2016, and ending June 30, 2017, he will maintain an office in the Bovard Administration Building, working closely with me and reporting directly to me as he heads a fundraising initiative focused on renewing the nation’s most venerable stadium and the home of Trojan football,” school president Max Nikias’ email.
Haden has been with the Trojans for the past five and a half years. He recently made headlines when he had to fire head coach Steve Sarkisian in the middle of the college football season.
He promoted Clay Helton to be the interim head coach. After guiding the team to the Pac-12 Championship game, Haden promoted Helton to the full-time head coaching job.
He took over the position when the school was in a multi-year NCAA sanction against its football, men’s basketball and women’s tennis.
The key program is the football team as probes from the school and the NCAA found that Reggie Bush, who was the 2005 Heisman Trophy winner, and O.J. Mayo, who was a USC Trojans basketball star, forfeited their amateur status for accepting gifts from agents.
For Mayo, his happened before he even suited up for the school. Also, the women’s tennis team made unauthorized phone calls by a former player, which led to that team also being cited in the USC athletic scandal.
The school received one of the harshest penalties dished out by the NCAA without receiving a death penalty.
This made Haden create a large compliance team to make sure his student-athletes are making the right decisions. As a result, it improved their graduation rates and GPA across the athletic department.
While being the AD, he’s helped raise $400 million, according to Nikias.
