A three-year letterman at USC under College Football Hall of Fame head coach John McKay, Pat Haden led the Trojans in passing yards in 1973 (1,832) and 1974 (988) and in total offense in 1973 (1,832 passing, 156 rushing). His 1,988 yards of total offense also led the Pac-8 Conference. Haden was a member of USC's 1972 and 1974 national championship teams and played in three Rose Bowls. He was Co-MVP of the 1975 Rose Bowl when he threw for 181 yards and two scores, including a touchdown pass and a two-point conversion pass late in the game, for a comeback 18-17 win over Ohio State.
A Trojan co-captain in 1974, Haden was named the team's MVP and Most Inspirational Player that season and was selected to play in the 1975 Hula Bowl. He was awarded the Theodore Gabrielson Award as the MVP of the USC-Notre Dame game after orchestrating one of the greatest comebacks in college football history, throwing four touchdowns to lead USC to a 55-24 win over Notre Dame in 1974 after trailing 24-0 late in the first half. He still ranks 14th on USC's career passing list (241 completions) and is 15th in total offense (3,802 yards). He threw for 3,288 yards and 33 touchdowns in his career.
Compiling a 3.7 GPA in English, Haden was a two-time Academic All-American and was named one of the NCAA Today's Top Five Award winner. He also received the Football Alumni Club Award as the senior football letterman with the highest GPA. Haden graduated from USC magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 1975 with a bachelor's degree in English. He was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford, where he received a bachelor's degree in philosophy, politics and economics in 1978. He received a law degree from Loyola Law School in 1982.
Haden was selected in the seventh round (176th overall) of the 1975 NFL Draft by the Los Angeles Rams. He played for the Southern California Sun of the World Football League in 1975 and then the Rams for six seasons while also attending Oxford. He led the Rams to three NFC West Division titles and the team advanced to the NFC Championship Game in 1976 and 1978. He began 1979 as the starter, but was sidelined with a broken finger midway through the season as the Rams made it to the Super Bowl. He was the Rams' Rookie of the Year in 1976, made the Pro Bowl in 1977 and was named the NFC Player of the Year in 1978 by the Washington D.C. Touchdown Club. In his career, he completed 731-of-1,363 passes (53.6%) for 9,296 yards and 52 touchdowns.
After receiving his J.D. from Loyola Law School in 1982, Haden served as an attorney in the Los Angeles office of the Lillick, McHose & Charles law firm from 1982-87. From 1987-2010, he was a partner and managing director of Riordan, Lewis & Haden, a Los Angeles private equity firm that invests in high-growth middle market companies. His partners were former Los Angeles mayor Richard Riordan and Chris Lewis, an All-American tennis player on a pair of USC's NCAA championship teams.
Haden served on USC's Board of Trustees from 1991-2010 and chaired the board's Academic Affairs and Student Affairs committees. He also chaired the fundraising initiative of USC's College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. He served on the USC Alumni Association Board of Governors from 1984 to 1988. Haden also was an analyst on college and pro football telecasts for CBS (1982-90), TNT (1990-97), NBC (1998-2009) and FOX (2008) and on radio with CBS and Westwood One.
Haden assumed the Charles Griffin Cale Director of Athletics' Chair at USC on Aug. 3, 2010. Along with his athletics director position, he received a joint faculty appointment in the USC Marshall School of Business and USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. He worked with faculty to design new curricula in areas such as sports business and sports journalism, and lectures and teaches courses. Haden was also a member of the inaugural College Football Playoff Selection Committee. He stepped down as USC’s athletics director in 2016, but remains at the university in an advisory role.
He has served on numerous corporate and non-profit boards, including Systems Management Specialists, Data Processing Resources Corporation, Adohr Farms, Tetra Tech, The Apothecary Shops, Rose Hills Foundation, Fletcher Jones Foundation, Good Samaritan Hospital, Boys Town of Southern California, Multiple Sclerosis Society of Los Angeles and Crippled Children's Society of Los Angeles. He formerly chaired the March of Dimes Reading Olympics in Los Angeles and the Boys Life National Illiteracy Campaign.
He was inducted into the USC Athletics Hall of Fame in 2003, the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame in 1995, the National High School Hall of Fame in 1995 and the Academic All-American Hall of Fame in the 1988 inaugural class. He received an NCAA Silver Anniversary Award in 2000 and a plaque on the San Pedro Sportswalk in 2011.
