USC could go with outside choice
Nikias says school will conduct a national search for Haden’s successor as AD.
It was a dark time for USC athletics.
The football and men’s basketball teams were facing some of the harshest sanctions in NCAA history, the athletic director had been fired and university administrators needed someone to stabilize the situation.
So the school did what it has almost always done, turning to one of its own.
When Pat Haden took over the athletic department in the summer of 2010, he became the seventh man to hold the position since 1926, all but one of them hired from within.
Six years later, with Haden announcing his impending retirement Friday, USC has plans to launch a search for his replacement.
“The process will be national in scope,” President C. L. Max Nikias stated in a letter to the university community.
But after decades of sticking to the familiar — and with at least two potential candidates currently part of the athletic department staff — will USC hold to tradition or follow a more recent trend?
Willis O. Hunter* .... 1925- 57
Jess Hill* .................. 1957- 72
John McKay ............. 1972- 75
Richard Perry* ....... 1975- 84
Mike McGee*.......... 1984- 93
Mike Garrett........ 1993- 2010
Pat Haden ................ 2010- 16
* Member of National Assn. of Collegiate Directors of Athletics Hall of Fame