Lots of schools have hired campus heroes as athletic director. Texas A&M hired John David Crow. Wisconsin hired Pat Richter. Oklahoma hired Steve Owens.
But Southern Cal has trumped them all. USC has replaced one athletic hero (Mike Garrett) with another (Pat Haden). Generally, when an organization makes a change, it goes for an opposite if things haven’t been going smoothly. Things haven’t been going smoothly for USC, which has been hit with a heavy probation, which cost Garrett his job.
And maybe the Trojans have gone opposite, even though both Garrett and Haden were SC football stars. Garrett won the 1965 Heisman Trophy; Haden quarterbacked USC to the 1974 UPI national championship.
Garrett rubbed most everyone wrong; Haden is charming. Haden also is not your typical ex-jock. He was a Rhodes Scholar and graduated magna cum laude and phi betta kappa. Haden has been working as a partner in a venture capital firm. For the last 12 years, Haden has been NBC’s analyst for Notre Dame, USC’s historic rival. Haden has been on USC’s board of trustees since 1991 as chairman of the academic affairs and student affairs committees.
Haden has a couple of OU ties. He quarterbacked USC in the vaunted 7-7 tie with the Sooners in 1973. Haden completed just seven of 16 passes for 59 yards that day. But cut him some slack. No one was throwing much or certainly not as effectively as teams do today, and that OU defense was a pack for the ages.
Haden also called two OU games — the 1999 Notre Dame game and the West Virginia Fiesta Bowl three years ago. I chatted with Haden on the sideline of a Sooner practice that week in Phoenix and we published one of our collected wisdoms, the Sunday feature in which we pick the brain of interesting sports people.
Here is that 2007 collected wisdom with Pat Haden:
“Pat Haden will be part of FOX’s broadcast crew for the Fiesta Bowl. Haden was a star quarterback in the Los Angeles area at all levels — Bishop Amat High School in La Puente; Southern Cal, where he quarterbacked the Trojans to the 1974 UPI national title; the Los Angeles Rams, whom he quarterbacked to three NFC West titles in the late ’70s; and even the Southern California Sun of the defunct World Football League, which enabled him to go to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar before entering the NFL.
“Haden, a football television analyst for 24 years, is an investment lawyer in Los Angeles, a member of the USC board of trustees and, ironically, part of NBC’s broadcast crew for Notre Dame, USC’s arch rival.
I played against Oklahoma a long time ago. The only thing I remember is Joe Washington, on that punt return. He ran about 140 yards, all over the field. I saw him three different times in front of me (while I was) standing on the sideline.You can learn some valuable lessons in life in football.Really, handling the bad moments in life. Reacting to new challenges when things don’t go your way.I enjoyed football less with each level I went up. It was blessing and curses, playing in my hometown. We won virtually every game in college; that didn’t always happen in professional football. Getting booed, tossed out of games, completely different.I grew up in the Pasadena area. It was a multi-ethnic community. Half my class was Hispanic. The community I live in now is mostly Asian. You get a larger world view. The demographic of the country is changing. It’s certainly changing in California.(USC’s) John McKay was my favorite coach. He had a reputation as being great with the media and being a fun guy, but with his players, he was tough. An old-fashioned, hard-nosed coach. Inventive, offensive-minded coach. Interesting person. He probably had the most impact on me. Almost a second father.Of course, I had a different relationship with him than others. I lived with him my senior year of high school. ( Haden was best friends with McKay’s son, J.K., who became his receiver at USC). My parents moved away. That wasn’t against NCAA rules back then.My favorite football memory was my senior year in college. The Rose Bowl game. We beat Ohio State (18-17). I threw a pass to J.K. to win it. To throw the winning touchdown pass to a lifelong friend, I thought that was going to be the last football game I would ever play. There couldn’t be any better finish than that.J.K. and me are still good buddies. If I wasn’t here (in Phoenix), I’d be playing golf today with him. He just named his son after me. Haden, not Patrick.My favorite teammate would be Jack Youngblood, with the Rams. I’ve never been around a guy who was more passionate about the game of football. He played in the Super Bowl with a broken leg. He uplifted his teammates by his performance. And it wasn’t just in games, it was practice, too. One regret I have about my career is that I didn’t play better for Jack Youngblood.Broadcasting is a hobby of mine. It’s fun. It’s ironic I call Notre Dame. But I don’t think they wanted to hire a Notre Dame guy, somebody to be a homer.I still get football cards, people wanting me to sign, every day in the mail. I can’t imagine how many Joe Montana gets. I haven’t played in 30 years.If not for football, my life really would have been different. I grew up in a middle class family. I couldn’t have afforded to go to a school like USC. It allowed me to have this opportunity. The Rhodes Scholar changed my life in so many ways.I don’t know what it would have turned out like. My wife knows nothing about athletics. I keep saying, “This never would have happened without football. She doesn’t understand that. It’s been a significant contributor to me.”
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