Oklahoma football: Safety Pat Fields earning national recognition for off-field excellence
By Chip Rouse
Senior safety Pat Fields has been a starter and key contributor on defense the past three seasons, but his contributions as a representative of the Oklahoma football program and the university go well beyond the football field.
Fields is a finalist for three distinguished national awards that recognize exemplary leadership on and off the field as well as contributions through community service.
The four-year senior and two-time OU football captain is a finalist for the William C. Campbell Trophy, which recognizes the college football player who demonstrates the best combination of academic achievement, community service and on-field performance. He is also a finalist for the Wuerffel Trophy, which honors a college player every year who is the best example of serving others while also achieving excellence on the classroom and on the playing field.
This past week, Fields was named one of three finalists for the Jason Whitten Collegiate Man of the Year Award.
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The OU starting safety, who hails from nearby Tulsa, Oklahoma, has compiled an overall GPA of 3.82 in his four years at the University of Oklahoma while pursuing a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in accounting and a master’s degree in accounting.
Field was named this season to the Academic All-America First Team. He was a second-team Academic All-America selection in 2020. In addition, he was an Academic All-District honoree in both 2021 and 2020 and an Academic All-Big 12 First-Team selection in 2021, ’20 and ’19.
His work in the community includes having founded “Town Business,” a financial literacy program that teaches high school football student athletes about budgeting and money management. Fields also is founder of the Black Wall Street Scholarship, a project in which he has collaborated with the president of the OU National Black Alumni Association to create an endowment for providing scholarships for underrepresented and lower-income students from the Tulsa area.
In three seasons as the Sooner starting safety, Fields recorded 193 tackles, 11.5 tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks, 10 pass breakups and three interceptions. He was second on the team this season with 71 tackles and 4.5 tackles for loss.