[4][5][6] After graduating from Washingtonville, Fields entered the State University of New York at New Paltz, setting a SUNY Athletic Conference record as a freshman in 1973 and sharing third place at that year's NCAA College Division championships.

[15] Fields continued high jumping after graduating from Seton Hall, dedicating himself to qualifying for the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, Soviet Union.

[16][18] He set his personal best, 2.30 m (7 ft 6+1⁄2 in), in Valparaíso on November 1, 1978;[3][14] Track & Field News ranked him third in the United States and sixth in the world that year.

[19] Fields won the national indoor championship title at the 1979 AAU indoor championships, jumping a meeting record 7 ft 4+3⁄4 in (2.25 m) and edging out Jacobs and James Frazier on fewer misses;[20][21] Stones, the previous year's champion, had been declared a professional and thus wasn't eligible to jump.

[23] That summer Fields represented the United States at the Pan American Games in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and then the Soviet Spartakiad in Moscow; he won silver medals in both meets.

[16] 1982 marked the last time Fields was ranked in the national top ten;[17] he attempted to qualify for the Olympics again at the 1984 Trials, but no-heighted in the qualification round.