Patrick Edmund Cowan (born March 23, 1986 in

Surrey, British Columbia Surrey is a city in British Columbia, Canada. It is located south of the Fraser River on the Canada–United States border. It is a member municipality of the Metro Vancouver regional district and metropolitan area. Mainly a suburban city, Surr ...

) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wit ...

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

. Cowan was previously the starting quarterback at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a Normal school, teachers colle ...

after starter

Ben Olson Benjamin James Olson (born February 28, 1983) is a former American football college quarterback. He played four injury-plagued seasons of college football at UCLA, starting 10 games (and appearing in four others) with the club. High school c ...

was injured in the middle of the 2006 season. Cowan was a

redshirt Redshirt, Red Shirt, or Redshirts may refer to: Entertainment * ''Red Shirts'' (film), a 1952 film about Anita Garibaldi by Franco Rossi * Redshirt (stock character), originally derived from ''Star Trek'', a stock character who dies soon after b ...

sophomore. His best game came when he went 12/21 for 124 yards when the Bruins upset the #2

USC Trojans The USC Trojans are the College athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Southern California (USC), located in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California. While the men's teams are nicknamed the ' ...

on December 2, 2006. With the win, the Bruins qualified for the

Emerald Bowl The San Francisco Bowl was an annual postseason college football bowl game certified by the NCAA and played in the San Francisco Bay Area. Originally named the Diamond Walnut San Francisco Bowl during its first two editions from 2002 to 2003, it ...

against

Florida State Florida State University (FSU) is a public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher education in the sta ...

. Cowan was 15/26 for 240 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions in the loss to

. Cowan and USC linebacker Rey Maualuga will be remembered in the tradition-filled UCLA-USC football rivalry for a violent sideline collision-tackle of Cowan in the 2nd quarter of the 2006 game, which was broadcast to a national television audience. To Cowan's credit, after the collision he walked to his sideline unassisted and returned to play the remainder of the contest. In the post-game ESPN telecast, legendary college football coach

Lou Holtz Louis Leo Holtz (born January 6, 1937) is an American former football player, coach, and analyst. He served as the head football coach at The College of William & Mary (1969–1971), North Carolina State University (1972–1975), the New York ...

observed that the Maualuga tackle of Cowan was "the most violent tackle I have ever seen on a college football field". Cowan ended his UCLA football career due to a knee injury during the 2008 spring practices. He served as an undergraduate assistant coach on the football team in 2008. He was eligible for the

2009 NFL draft The 2009 NFL Draft was the seventy-fourth annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible football players. The draft took place at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, New York, on April 25 and 26, 2009. ...

, but was not selected. Following the draft he was signed and later released by the

New Orleans Saints The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. Since 1975, the te ...

Personal

Cowan played at UCLA alongside his brother, Joe. Cowan attended

St. John Bosco High School St. John Bosco High School (SJBHS) is a Catholic, all-boys college preparatory high school located in Bellflower, California, and conducted by the San Francisco Province of the Salesians of St. John Bosco. St. John Bosco High School is named ...

Bellflower, California Bellflower is a city located in southeast Los Angeles County, California, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. It was founded in 1906 and incorporated on September 3, 1957. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 79,190, up f ...

. Both brothers were born in Canada while their father Tim Cowan played quarterback for the

BC Lions The BC Lions are a professional Canadian football team based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Lions compete in the West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), and play their home games at BC Place. The Lions played their first season ...

of the

CFL The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ...

. Patrick also served with the Peace Corps in Kenya. Pat Cowan is currently employed at his alma mater, UCLA, as executive director, Office of Regional Giving.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cowan, Patrick 1986 births Living people Sportspeople from Surrey, British Columbia Canadian players of American football Canadian emigrants to the United States UCLA Bruins football players American football quarterbacks Gridiron football people from British Columbia Players of American football from California

Personal

See also

References