Brad Fields

BIOGRAPHY

Brad Fields, a 1998 Centre graduate, has served as director of athletics and recreation since returning to Centre in 2013. Centre has achieved a great deal of success in Fields’s years of leadership, as 16 programs have combined to win over 88 Southern Athletic Association championships between regular season and tournament competition. In addition, Centre has had several programs make the NCAA Postseason, highlighted by Final Four runs from women's soccer in 2015 and men's soccer in 2019.

Individually, Centre student-athletes have won seven national championship during Fields's tenure. Annie Rodenfels captured three NCAA Track & Field Championships during 2018-2019 and JP Vaught clutched four NCAA Track & Field Championships throughout the 2020-2022 seasons. 

Since 2016-17 season, Centre has had five student-athletes named SAA Man or Woman of the Year, and 106 Centre student-athletes have been named All-Americans since Fields returned to Danville. In 2018-19, buoyed by record-setting fall that saw NCAA postseason appearances from football, women's cross country and men's and women's soccer, Centre finished 62nd out of almost 450 Division III institutions in the Learfield Directors' Cup. It was the second-best mark in the department's history, and was first among all SAA schools. In 2021-22, the Colonels set a new mark, finishing 48th in the NACDA / Learfield Directors Cup with a school record 379 points. 

Off the field, Centre Athletics has seen record enrollment, record fundraising, and a flurry of facilities enhancements over the past decade. Beginning in the spring of 2020, Fields spearheaded the $65 million Initiative for Wellness and Athletic Excellence (IWAE), which led to the construction of Gary Wright Field at Fishman Park, the renovation of Andy Frye Stadium (formerly Farris Stadium), and the construction of Champions Hall, a Fieldhouse, Olympic pool and aquatic center, strength and performance center, and multipurpose indoor complex.

Other major upgrades include Sutcliffe Hall, Fishman Center, Seabury Family Tennis Center, David Hicks Practice Facility, Softball hitting facility and Andrew P. Amend Field. 

A native of Ashland, Ky., Fields earned a B.S. degree at Centre with a double major in economics and Spanish. He later earned an M.S. degree in sports management, with an emphasis in intercollegiate administration, from California University of Pennsylvania. 

Fields began his career in 1999 at the University of South Carolina-Aiken, an NCAA Division II school that competes in the Peach Belt Conference and fields 11 collegiate teams. He served as sports information director for four years at USC Aiken before being promoted to assistant athletic director. His work won numerous awards from CoSIDA, the College Sports Information Directors of America. Fields returned to Kentucky in 2008, taking the position of director of athletic media relations at Western Kentucky University, a Division I program competing in the Sun Belt Conference. From there, Fields moved in 2010 to a position as athletic director at Eastern University, which fields 16 intercollegiate sports.

During his tenure at Eastern, the Eagles combined for six regular season conference titles, eight conference tournament crowns, and 14 NCAA Tournament appearances, including an NCAA Final Four trip by volleyball in 2011. In addition, Eastern student-athletes achieved a graduation rate 16.7 percent higher than the rest of the student body.

Fields and his wife, Julie, have three daughters, Maddie, Emma and Katelyn.