Roland Aumueller, an absolute pillar of the Milwaukie community passed away in his sleep on the team bus after MHS won their game against Parkrose Friday night. 

The chances are if you went to Milwaukie or had a kid that went to MHS and played football or did track any time over the last 30 years, you knew who Aum was.

I first met Aum when I was just a kid playing youth football. At a time when the high school coaches didn’t really interact with the youth league, Aum would show up to games or practices to encourage kids like myself and give us pointers on how to improve our stance or get up field to make a block.

As a kid, I remember being in awe of this giant man who played for the Houston Oilers in the 80’s. When I got to high school and got a chance to play under Coach Aum, I got to see both sides of him — the bad ass competitor who would spit when he yelled and who none of us ever wanted to disappoint — and the softie who truly loved every player he ever interacted with and who dedicated his life to Milwaukie football and the next generation of athletes. 

It’s worth mentioning that over the decades he coached at Milwaukie, we didn’t had have a lot of winning seasons. We saw literally dozens of head coaches come and go — but Aum always stuck around and believed in us. 

I can’t imagine Milwaukie Football without Aum. He has literally impacted thousands of young men (and women) who have come through Milwaukie athletics and I’m tearing up just writing this.

I want to echo my former teammate Andrew Lee’s call to rename MHS’ Stadium: Coach Roland Aumueller Stadium.

My hope is that we can get enough community support to get the administration to do this. 

I can’t think of a more fitting tribute to a man who embodied Milwaukie.

EDIT - PLEASE READ: It has come to my attention that Change.org asks for donations to help spread the petition and that folks have been donating — perhaps not realizing the money is going to Change.org. Please save your money as we have enough people power to get this petition in front of the community. My hope is that the Mustang Born Scholarship Fund will be able t create a scholarship in Aum’s name and that we’ll be doing a separate fundraiser for that in the future.