USC Athletic Director Pat Haden will retire from his position at the end of June, the university announced in an email to students, alumni and athletic supporters on Friday morning.

“I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Pat Haden, who has announced his intention to retire from his role as athletic director, effective June 30, 2016,” University of Southern California President C. L. Max Nikias stated in the email.

Although he will step down from his post as athletic director, Haden has agreed to serve a 1-year term to guide the renovation of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and help with fundraising efforts, according to Nikias. The term runs from July 1, 2016, to June 30, 2017.

Haden, a former USC quarterback, stepped away from his longtime role as a university trustee when he was hired to lead the school’s athletic department back in 2010. Just weeks before Haden was tapped to lead the department, the NCAA had doled out penalties of “unprecedented harshness” to the football team, according to the email.

After being placed on probation, the team was prohibited from participating in bowl games for two seasons; it also lost some 30 scholarships over three seasons as a result of the punishment.

Haden, who took over on Aug. 3, 2010, was tasked with rebuilding the program, as well as improving the athletic department’s overall physical and academic infrastructure.

“Pat developed and executed a blueprint for how athletics and academics can reinforce one another at an academically elite private research university with a public-minded mission,” Nikias wrote. Haden helped create “a model for NCAA compliance at a top intercollegiate athletics program, especially one such as ours, which operates under the brightest of spotlights.”

Less than an hour after the announcement was made via email, Haden issued a statement through USC’s athletic blog.

“It has been a tremendous honor serving my alma mater, a school I love so much, as well as serving Max Nikias, our coaches and staff and, most importantly, our student-athletes,” he said. “I am proud of what has been accomplished here the past six years and knowing that USC Athletics is on an upward trajectory. I look forward to finishing out this academic year as athletic director and then spending time on the Coliseum project.”

Haden’s ties to the university, as well as the Los Angeles area, run deep.

As a quarterback for the Trojans, Haden played on two national championship teams and won three Rose Bowl. He was inducted into the USC Athletic Hall of Fame back in 2003.

Later, he played several seasons with the L.A. Rams in the NFL before becoming a successful businessman and sports broadcaster.

During his nearly 6-year tenure helming the department, Haden fired and hired two head football coaches, making two major changes mid-season.

The first firing, of head coach Lane Kiffin, followed the team’s 62-41 loss to Arizona State in Tempe, Arizona, on Sept. 28, 2013. The second occurred last season, when Steve Sarkisian was terminated on Oct. 12, one day after he was placed by Haden on “indefinite leave” due to concerns over his health.

Offensive Coordinator Clay Helton replaced Sarkisian as interim head coach before he was hired on permanently following the team’s victory over its crosstown rivals, the UCLA Bruins.

“It’s been in Ohio as early as the mid-1850s at least, brought in as an ornamental plant because of its unique foliage and white flowers,” Gardner said. “It was actually planted in people’s landscaping, and it has been spreading.”

Sarkisian has since filed a lawsuit against the school over his termination.

Haden, 63, has had some recent health problems, and had to be tended to by medical personnel before kickoff of the USC – Notre Dame game last October after he collapsed on the sideline of the South Bend, Indiana, stadium.  

Later that month, he stepped down from the College Football Playoff committee, citing his health as a reason, according to the Los Angeles Times.