Haven Fields Sr.

Haven Fields is in his third year as Nebraska's deputy athletic director/chief operating officer in 2025. Fields serves as the day-to-day football administrator, assisting Head Coach Matt Rhule and his football staff.

In addition to his role with the football program, Fields oversees the Huskers Athletic Fund team and assists Director of Athletics Troy Dannen in managing the day-to-day operations of the athletic department.

Fields came to Lincoln after spending time on Dannen’s staff at Washington. With the Huskies, Fields led several external units including marketing and fan engagement, strategic communications, creative and digital services and multimedia, while serving as the liaison for Learfield/Husky Sports Properties. Fields also played a role in assisting with the Huskies’ transition to the Big Ten with oversight of the broadcast operations as it prepared for its partnership with the Big Ten Network.

Fields was the football sport administrator at Washington, the 2024 College Football Playoff runner-up and 2023 Pac-12 Champions. During his time at UW, Fields assisted in the hiring of new Head Football Coach Jedd Fisch and Head Men’s Basketball Coach Danny Sprinkle.
Before his appointment at Washington, Fields was the deputy athletics director at Ball State as the No. 2 administrator in the department. He assisted in supervising the Cardinals’ 19 teams and 450-plus student-athletes. Fields oversaw several external areas (athletics communications, marketing & fan engagement, development, ticketing sales & operations)and was the liaison to Learfield-IMG/Ball State Sports Properties.

Several of the Ball State teams Fields worked with experienced record success from a revenue generation standpoint. Specifically, he worked as the sport administrator for the football and basketball programs. He administered the football program’s first bowl win in school history in 2020, beating two top-25 opponents in that season. Ball State finished the year ranked in the AP poll and made back-to-back bowl appearances for only the third time in the school’s history.

Fields led Ball State’s COVID-19 plan for return to campus, testing protocols that successfully allowed all programs to compete and finish their seasons. During his time at Ball State, he assisted in raising private support of more than $15 million and oversaw the athletic department’s most notable capital project to date - The Scheumann Family Indoor Practice Facility, which was fully funded through private support.

Prior to his time at Ball State, Fields worked at the University of Illinois as the associate athletic director of development. In his six years with the Illini, Fields assisted with the university’s $2.25 billion “With Illinois” campaign, $300 million of which was earmarked for athletics. The university campaign exceeded $2.7 billion, and the athletics portion raised $321 million.

Before his stint at Illinois, Fields worked at the University of South Alabama for over five years, where he assisted in the facilitation of the overall football operation for a start-up, Division I program, and transition to Football Bowl Subdivision. Fields began his time in collegiate athletics at Auburn, working for four years at his alma mater.

Fields played collegiate football for Auburn, earning the Zeke Smith Award (Auburn’s Defensive Player of the Year). He was an honorable mention All-SEC pick as a linebacker and earned a spot on the 1999 AFCA “Good Works” Team. After college, Fields played two seasons of professional football in the Canadian Football League for the Hamilton Tigercats and British Columbia Lions.

Fields earned his bachelor’s degree in kinesiology from Auburn in 2001 and later earned a master’s in higher education administration/sports management. He and his wife, Dr. Mya, who is an assistant dean for Purdue University’s School of Multidisciplinary and Professional Studies, have two sons, Haven Jr. and Hendrix.

Last udated: Aug. 2026