Oklahoma's Pat Fields, Ivana Corley Nominated for Big 12 Sportsperson of the Year Award

Both Sooners were heavily involved in local charities, awareness, fundraising and more and have become pillars of society at their school.

Pat Fields and Ivana Corley are Oklahoma’s nominations for the 2021 Big 12 Sportsperson of the Year Award, the league office announced Wednesday.

Corley is a senior on the OU women’s tennis team, while Fields is a senior on the OU football team.

Corley, from Albuquerque, NM, created the “Corley Cup” tennis tournament in her hometown for high school players who had their 2020 seasons shut down by the COVID-19 pandemic.

She launched the tournament in hope of filling a void for New Mexico’s graduating seniors and varsity tennis players after their state tournaments were cancelled, but her event raised more than $30,000, with proceeds going to the winners of the tournament (for college) and to three statewide charities.

Corley, a member of OU’s Student-Athlete Innovative Leaders group for three years, will serve as SAIL president for the 2021-22 term. She earned Academic All-Big 12 First Team in 2020 and 2021, has she has twice been selected to the OU Dean’s Honor Roll and has been named to the Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll all six semesters.

Corley is pursuing a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in entrepreneurship and venture management.

Fields, a 2020 team captain from Tulsa, founded “Town Business,” a financial literacy seminar that teaches high school football student-athletes about budgeting, money management, credit and personal branding.

Along with other student-athletes and former NFL players, Fields conducted his first seminar in May in his hometown. He has been part of the leadership team of OU athletes that promoted social justice initiatives, voting education and registration, and helped develop the Sooners for Humanity patch featured on all OU athletics uniforms for the 2020-21 athletics year.

Fields recently completed a two-year term as one of two student-athletes nationally serving on the NCAA Division I Football Oversight and Competition Committee. He was an Academic All-Big 12 First Team honoree in 2019 and 2020, and received the Dr. Gerald Lage Academic Achievement Award, OU’s Dan Gibbons Outstanding Scholar Athlete of the Year Award and the 2020 Cotton Bowl’s Dan S. Petty Scholarship Award.

Fields is pursuing a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in accounting and a master’s degree in accounting, and expects to complete both this December.

The Big 12 Sportsperson of the Year Awards began in 2000-01 to annually recognize student-athletes who display an extraordinary degree of sportsmanship, community service and academic achievement. A 10-person media panel selects the male and female winners.

This year’s other nominees are: Baylor’s Jennifer Wandt (Soccer) and Jared Butler (Men’s Basketball), Iowa State’s Sami Williams (Softball) and David Carr (Wrestling), Kansas’ Manon Manning (Women’s Swimming & Diving) and Jonah Ulane (Baseball), K-State’s Ayoka Lee (Women’s Basketball) and Jordan Wicks (Baseball), Oklahoma State’s Maja Stark (Women’s Golf) and Cade Cunningham (Men’s Basketball), TCU’s Emily Alvarado (Soccer) and Chengetayi (Du) Mapaya (Men’s Track & Field), Texas’ Alexandra Watson (Rowing) and Sam Ehlinger (Football), Texas Tech’s Ruth Usoro (Women’s Track & Field) and Tony Bradford Jr. (Football) and West Virginia’s Audrey Adams (Volleyball) and Kevin Brophy (Baseball).

The award winners will be announced on Thursday, June 17.