Pat Haden, who won two national championships as a quarterback at Southern California before returning nearly four decades later to preside over an athletic department mired in pay-for-play-related sanctions, will step down as the Trojans’ athletic director in June, the university president, C.L. Max Nikias, announced Friday.
In a letter posted on U.S.C.’s website, Nikias praised Haden for “his distinct blend of integrity, energy, wisdom and character” and said that Haden had been a formidable fund-raiser as well as a valuable steward of U.S.C.’s storied football program.
When Haden took over in 2010, N.