Inside Athletics

Peter Fields is in his fifth year as the Senior Associate Athletic Director of Development at Santa Clara after spending the last 14 years as Director of Athletics at Montana State University.

Prior to being hired at Santa Clara in October 2016. Signs of success at MSU ranged far beyond the walls of Brick Breeden Fieldhouse, with Bobcat Athletics enjoying a period of tremendous growth and success in Fields’ decade-plus in charge. Montana State’s 14 athletic programs combined to produce 27 consecutive semesters with a grade point average of better than 3.0. In the spring of 2015 MSU’s cumulative team grade point average topped 3.20, and in the past decade MSU student-athletes contributed over 30,000 hours of service in the MSU and Bozeman communities. He spearheaded a major renovation of Bobcat Stadium and improvements in each of MSU’s competition sites. And most significantly, he guided Bobcat Athletics to two Big Sky Conference President’s Cups and a tie for another, signifying the program’s combined superiority in academics and athletics combined, and three Big Sky Men’s All-Sports Trophies.

Fields’ work has been recognized as outstanding on a national level. He was named the NACDA FCS West Region Athletic Director of the Year for in 2011, and received the 2007 General Robert R. Neyland Outstanding Athletic Director Award from the All-America Football Foundation.

Fields’ contributions to college athletics have been wide-ranging. A long-time member of the College Athletics Business Managers, Fields served as that group’s president in 1999. He was President of the FCS Athletic Directors Association in 2009-10, along with serving on a wide array of NCAA committees. He presently belongs to the NCAA Leadership Council, is among a group of Athletic Directors working to identify and solve issues of national importance.

A 1979 University of Maine, Presque Isle graduate, Fields was a standout varsity wrestler who earned induction into his school’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 2006. He was also a wrestling coach at UMPI and earned his M.A. from the U.S. Sports Academy in 1987. He came to Montana State from Missouri, where he worked from 1996-2002, including the last four as Associate AD. He previously worked at Toledo (1988-96) and Kent State (1985-88) in business and budget management, with a wide range of duties at each stop.

Fields’ wife Debbie is a nurse in the Livingston school system, and their daughter Briana, an Academic All-Big Sky Bobcat basketball player at Montana, presently works as an associate director of compliance at Ohio State.