Two campus shootings last week rocked Oakland. On Wednesday, a 15-year-old Skyline High School student was injured in a shooting by two minors on campus. On Thursday, beloved former football coach, John Beam, was shot at his job as athletic director for Laney College and died the next day. We’ll hear from those who knew Coach Beam about his life and legacy and we’ll discuss what Oakland schools are doing to address safety concerns.
Guests:
Esther Kaplan, deputy editor, Oaklandside
Joseph Dycus, sports reporter, East Bay Times
Nelson Alegria, executive director of safety, Oakland Unified School District
Tatsu Yamato, parent of a freshman student at Skyline High School
This partial transcript was computer-generated. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.
Alexis Madrigal: Welcome to Forum. I’m Alexis Madrigal. We begin this morning talking about John Beam. Beam was, yes, a football coach. He began his head coaching career at Skyline High School before moving over to Laney College twenty years ago. At Skyline and at Laney, his teams were very successful, winning titles over the years. But it was Beam’s mentorship of young people that comes up again and again. This was a man who not only knew how to command respect, but how to give it, and he inspired an incredible loyalty from the players he worked with. Here’s Chicago Bears player Nahshon Wright on what John Beam meant to him.
Nahshon Wright (clip): He meant the world to me. When my dad was killed, he came to my house. He got me out of the bed and, you know, someone I could confide in, someone that I just love dearly. Beam stepped in as a father figure, a father role, who did a lot for me and my brother and my family. He’s been there every step of the way, and it won’t stop. I gained an angel.
Alexis Madrigal: What a legend. Giant. What a man. Here to discuss Beam’s legacy, we’re joined by Joseph Dycus, sports reporter with the East Bay Times. Welcome.
Joseph Dycus: Thank you for having me.
Alexis Madrigal: So why do you think John Beam stood out so much? He never coached at the college or pro levels. He coached in high school and junior college. What was it about him that made him such a singular figure?
Joseph Dycus: Well, he stayed at Skyline for twenty years, and he won fifteen Oakland Athletic League titles. But that wasn’t the reason people gravitated toward him. It wasn’t the winning — it wasn’t winning football games — that made him special. It was his ability to, like you said, build relationships, not just with his players on a football level, but on a personal level.
You heard Nahshon Wright talk about how, after his father died, Beam went there and got him out of bed. That’s something you hear from probably hundreds of players he coached. His thing was not just winning. It was about: How are you as a person? How can I make you successful as a person past the football stage of your life?
And he did that for twenty years at Skyline. Then he goes to Laney, and he wins a championship at Laney, of course. He’s a very successful coach. But I think, as people saw in the Last Chance U documentary, that was a very accurate portrayal of John Beam the person. There was some dramatization here and there, but for the most part, that was exactly what you got from him in real life when you had a conversation with him.
Alexis Madrigal: Because you met him.
Joseph Dycus: I met him. I probably talked to him a dozen — over a dozen — times in the last year. And to go into another point: He wasn’t just at these big football games in his retirement. I saw him at College Prep of Oakland, at a boys basketball game. If you’ve ever been there, there are probably twenty people in the stands. He probably talked to nineteen of them during that game.
He was everywhere. He would just show up and meet up with people he knew. He would meet people he didn’t know. You talk to him for two minutes, and you’re ready to run through a brick wall.
Alexis Madrigal: Yeah. Let’s just hear his voice a little bit. We’ve got a cut of him after winning that state championship.
John Beam (clip): You do something for forty years, something you love. I put in hours of time on the field every day with everybody else’s kids. And so for me, I ran up to the field, found my wife, hugged her, my daughters. And, you know, football is about family. So every year, everything starts all over again. A whole new family.
Alexis Madrigal: That’s John Beam talking. We’re joined by Joseph Dycus, sports reporter with the East Bay Times. I want to invite you into the conversation as well. You can give us a call if you’ve got a memory of Coach Beam. 866-733-6786. The email is forum@kqed.org. Let’s go to Howie in Oakland. Welcome. Hey, Howie.
Howie: Good morning.
Alexis Madrigal: Hey. Do you have a memory of —
Howie: Can you hear me?
Alexis Madrigal: Yeah, sure can. Do you have a memory of Coach Beam?
Howie: Yeah. I’ve known Coach Beam since I was actually five, six years old. My dad was on his coaching staff at Skyline for many years, so I got to know him when I was young. I used to be at the games pretty often when I was little — running on the sidelines or in their office, their little portable next to the field.
I remember John all the time — he and my dad having good times, having good conversations, not just about football but about life. Even after my dad stopped coaching to be more supportive of me and my basketball career and my sister’s dance career, they would still keep in close contact.
Whenever he and his wife would fly out to Hawaii, they would always meet up with my dad and my stepmom, get dinner, catch up. Or when my dad would fly back out here, they would always find time to get together and catch up in person.
Alexis Madrigal: What was special about him, you think, Howie?
Howie: Just his personality and his way to connect with different people — different types of people. He was able to get the best out of people, from what I saw when I was little. And then, obviously, growing up and seeing his success at Skyline and then his success at Laney, and how all that blew up once Last Chance U came out.
Alexis Madrigal: Yeah. Howie, thanks so much for sharing your memories of the man beyond the screen. Really appreciate that. Let’s go to Josh Green in Corvallis, Oregon. Welcome.
Josh: Hey, mate. How are you doing?
Alexis Madrigal: Hey. Good. Thanks for calling in. What are you going to remember about Beam?
Josh: I played for Beam in 2019, the year that Last Chance U came to Laney College. And he took me in. I was a basketball player — I’d never played football before — from Australia. And he turned me into a punter at Laney. We tried a million different positions. I didn’t want to be a punter, but he saw something in me and pushed me. I ended up getting to Oregon State on a full scholarship.
Now I play professional football in Canada, in the CFL, and he’s been there with me every single step of the way — from the beginning of my career to now. He’s been compassionate. He’s given me tough love when I needed it. He’s been a father figure.
The way he stood up for his players, what he did for that community — it’s just heartbreaking that he’s not with us anymore. What he did… it’s just so sad. He loved his family so much. I admire every single thing about that man. It’s been a tough, tough week.
Alexis Madrigal: Oh, man. Really sorry, Josh. Thanks for sharing that with us. We were also looking at some of the tributes people have posted on social media. Tara Stinson, songwriter raised in Oakland, wrote this on Instagram — this is an excerpt:
“Writing this has felt impossible. I’ve rewritten it at least ten times, but there’s no perfect way to navigate this nightmare. Like so many in Oakland and beyond, I am hurting. Everyone called him Coach Beam, but I met him in eighth grade. So he was Mr. Beam, my PE teacher and my protector. Middle school was rough, and I survived it because of him and Mr. Wolf, who saw greatness in me when it was still just a seed planted by my mom. He lit a fire in me, always cheering as loudly as he corrected, blending compassion and tough love like only he could.”
Joseph, as you’ve been out there talking with people, what do we know about why this happened, how this happened, and where things stand?
Joseph Dycus: So, the alleged shooter appeared in court on Tuesday — yesterday. Right now, we don’t know a specific motive. Obviously, he’s going to appear in court again and that’ll be hashed out. His attorney made a statement suggesting a possible motive, saying he believed John Beam had said or done certain things. But at this point, we don’t know for sure.
What we do know is that there has been an outpouring of support for Beam — not just in the athletic community, but across Oakland — which really shows how beloved he was, and how his influence transcended sports.
Alexis Madrigal: Yeah. Why do you think he didn’t go to a bigger school? That seems to be the path for so many coaches: they start small, then move up and up until they’re the highest-paid state employee. Why didn’t that happen with Beam, you think?
Joseph Dycus: He absolutely could have been a major college coach — at Cal, Stanford, wherever. In my last big interview with him, I asked him why he didn’t move up to a Cal or a Stanford or a USC. And he said, “I didn’t need anything else. I paid off my house, took a few nice vacations every year. My family was safe. My family had food. Money’s nice — cash money — but at the end of the day, I had everything I needed, and I felt like I could make an impact here.”
Knowing John Beam, there was some colorful language in there I had to edit out. But yeah — he could have moved up. But if you look at the impact he made in his life, I don’t know if that would have been possible if he had moved to a big four-year university.
At the JUCO level, especially at Laney, you’re recruiting players almost exclusively from the Bay Area. Maybe a few kids from Stockton or Santa Cruz, but mostly local kids. You’re crafting relationships with them, with their coaches. You can relate to their experiences because you know where they’re from. I think that was a big factor in why he was as successful as he was.
Alexis Madrigal: Did you ever ask him about his mustache? Did he ever explain the mustache? A legendary mustache.
Joseph Dycus: You know, I don’t think I ever asked him. It was just like, oh — that’s just John.
Alexis Madrigal: Yeah, right. If you were to draw a portrait, he’d have that mustache.
Joseph Dycus: It was almost like your right hand — it was just part of him.
Alexis Madrigal: One of the saddest things about this situation is that, at a time when it feels like the meanest, nastiest versions of masculinity are what we see in society, you have this guy who’s the total opposite. Some of the best parts of Last Chance U — for anyone who hasn’t seen this Netflix series — are Beam and his wife walking and talking. They’re some of the most beautiful scenes of a marriage, of a relationship you could imagine. And he wanted that in there. That’s part of who he was.
So, we know John Beam — former Skyline and Laney coach — meant so much to people. Thank you so much for coming on, Joseph Dycus, sports reporter with the East Bay Times.
Joseph Dycus: Thank you.
Alexis Madrigal: We’re going to go out here with a little signature ending that John Beam used. You’re going to hear it, and we’ll be back with more right after the break.
John Beam (clip): Give me one. Ready. Ready. Give me two. Ready. Ready.