Oklahoma DB Pat Fields Focused on a Future of Financial Mentoring and Changing Lives
LAS VEGAS — When Pat Fields arrived at Oklahoma, he had priorities, a checklist, plenty of goals and even a handful of what he calls “non-negotiable.”
If that meant staying at the campus library until almost midnight to study or finish papers or work on group projects, then he would do it. If that means sleeping only a couple hours, then he would do it.
“I decided for myself that I wanted to finish my bachelor’s and masters in four years,” He said. “I decided whatever I had to sacrifice, that’s what I’m gonna do.
“I think the biggest thing is I can serve as an inspiration to younger kids and kind of show what a real student-athlete is and embody both parts of that — student and athlete — and just show people what’s possible and show them that they can do things.”
Fields was in Las Vegas on Tuesday as a finalist for the William V. Campbell Trophy — the “academic Heisman” — presented by the National Football Foundation as part of the College Football Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
Fields didn’t win the Campbell Trophy — or the $25,000 postgraduate scholarship that comes with it — but he does take home a cool $18,000 consolation prize as a finalist.
He hasn’t figured out yet what he’ll do with the prize, but he will definitely put it to good use.
“I know I want to for sure go to like a Harvard or Stanford, or one of the schools and that tier,” Fields said on Tuesday before the ceremony at the Aria Casino and Resort. “I kind of want to figure out what I'm gonna study because I was thinking about an MBA, but I've already got a master's in accounting so it’d kind of be a lot of parallel. So I've kind of been trying to figure out what specifically I'm going to do and what I want to pursue, but I definitely plan on going back to school and get another Master's degree.”
Fields, a Tulsa kid and a product of Union Schools, graduated with his degree in business adminsitration and a 3.82 GPA. But that wasn’t enough. A three-time Academic All-Big 12 football player who also is a three-year starter and two-time captain, zipped through OU’s accelerated master’s program in accounting.
But that wasn’t enough either. Rather, college has been just the beginning for Fields.
He’s become a mentor in the field of financial literacy to many young athletes in his hometown. The educational seminar he created, called “Town Business,” has become one of his passions, but just being able to inspire young people gives him energy.
“I think it's just huge from a hope and inspiration standpoint,” he said, “because I remember coming out of high school, honestly, didn't even think I would go Division I. Not from a lack of playing ability standpoint, just because guys didn't get recognized. But seeing guys before me pave the way, it gave me hope and inspiration. So I guess that’s what I'm trying to do — show people that it’s possible that way, it can kind of start a chain reaction of other people going down the same path.
“And then, it has a regenerative effect, you know, has a positive impact on the community.”
Fields said although he didn’t even really know what accounting was when he got to college, he’s always had good financial sense.
“I remember I started working — as soon as I was old enough, I was mowing lawns,” Fields said. “I was like 12, 13, 14 years old. And I'm saving money since 12 years old trying to buy a car when I turned 16. I had like a four-year plan, a process as a little kid, and it's kind of just growing up with, I guess, financial troubles and figuring out how to make a way and pave a way. So obviously, the interests of money has always been there.”
He said he learned in college “how you grow your money, how you track your money, how you manage, allocate your money.
“Just having a fundamental knowledge in finances and money and accounting can tremendously change your life,” Fields said, “because a lot of people just don't know about simple investments like mutual funds, IRAs and IRAs that have compound interest and you can retire with over a million dollars by doing the minimum investment every single year. But small things like that people just aren't taught and don't know of.
He did get that car when he was 16, by the way.
“Yeah, it was like a Kia Optima,” he said. “Obviously, I’ve changed since then. Obviously. But it was crazy because I’m like 12 years old, literally, and I’m thinking when I turn 16, I want to be able to buy a car. I don't know where the maturity came from to just create like a four-year plan at like 12 years old. And the craziest thing is, a lot of people will say it sounds unbelievable, but I have the bank statements of me depositing the money and all that stuff. So it's crazy.”
Fields acknowledged that he was caught off guard when Lincoln Riley left, but he’s thrilled to get to play his final game for Bob Stoops and he is excited for the future of the Oklahoma program under Brent Venables.
But he also clarified that while he would love to get to play for a defensive-minded head coach next year, he has no intention of taking the super-senior COVID year in 2022. The Alamo Bowl will be his final college football game.
“I’m done after this one,” he said. “I would love to. I have tremendous respect for coach Venables and I’m extremely excited to meet him. And I can’t emphasize how much and how reflective the team meeting (via Zoom) was with him. Even though I haven’t gotten a chance to meet him in person, you just took a lot away from him. I would definitely be excited to (play for Venables), but this is my last go-round.”
Venables and Stoops were the perfect hires at the perfect time for the Sooners, and getting to play for Stoops, who was head coach when Fields committed to the Sooners in March 2017, is the ideal way to go out.
“Oh man, it’s gonna be huge,” Fields said. “Because we’re playing for a legend. I think coach Stoops’ reaction to all this stuff kind of like reminds everybody how much of a legend he is. He literally came from a golf course to OU to work for us. But that says a lot about who he is and how much he cares about this university and how much he’ll do for it. But just being able to play for him, especially my last game, it’s almost like a movie-type moment. Especially with everything that’s gone on. So it’s gonna be huge. I’m gonna love doing it.”
And when football ends? What’s next for Pat Fields? The NFL doesn’t offer jobs to many 5-foot-10 safeties, but it’s not completely off the table. Like most college seniors, Fields’ future is an open highway.
“I want to get into like strategy consulting after I'm finished playing ball,” Fields said. “I think that puts you on a great trajectory, just to know and understand business, possibly become CEO, CFO, whatever the case might be, and then long-term, open up some type of facility in Tulsa, exposing kids to things that inner-city kids don't get to see, such as STEM — science, tech, engineering and math, computer science. That’s a big thing that's changing our world and probably going to be the future of our world, as well as the financial literacy.
And then simple things such as, etiquette at dinners, business etiquette, how to dress. Because I never even owned a suit before I got to college. So try to give as much of that stuff to kids that are early age because looking into it, there's kids at Google, like 17 years old, some of these big tech companies, who have had like six years of experience in coding and Python and what not. So I'm gonna try to expose as many kids as I can to that an early age.”
