Beloved former SOU football coach passes away

ASHLAND, Ore. – A beloved former Southern Oregon University coach who is considered one of the founding fathers of American football in Japan passed away.

SOU said Chuck Mills took over the university’s then-floundering football program in 1980 and immediately turned the team around. He left in 1988 with a 48-48-1 record and six winning seasons.

Outside of coaching, Mills reportedly “dropped both the school’s offensive Native American mascot and ‘Red’ from the Red Raiders moniker that was introduced in 1946.”

Prior to his coaching tenure at SOU, Mills was the head coach of the first American college football team to play in Japan, competing against a Tokyo collegiate team in 1971.

Starting in 1974, the “Chuck Mills Trophy” started to be awarded to the top college player in Japan.

Mills was inducted into the SOU Sports Hall of Fame in 2019, the university said.

He was 92 years old when he died Monday in Hawaii.

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