John Beam, a decorated former high school and junior college football coach in Oakland who achieved fame late in life on Netflix’s Last Chance U, has died after being shot in his office. He was 66.
“We are devastated that John Beam, our loving husband, father, grandfather, brother, uncle, coach, mentor and friend has passed,” Beam’s family said in a statement recorded in the Press Democrat in California. “Our hearts are full from the outpouring of support… we are deeply grateful for your continued prayers, well wishes and thoughts.”
Beam coached Skyline High School in Oakland before moving to a junior college role at Laney College. He helped turn the Eagles into a national junior college power, winning California’s prestigious state championship in 2018.
In the summer of 2020, Netflix profiled Beam and Laney in the final season of Last Chance U, a late-2010s hit chronicling the world of junior college football. The show catapulted Beam, who has coached 20 NFL players and over 100 Division I players, to fame throughout the football world.
Police arrested Cedric Irving Jr., a former Skyline football player whose tenure there did not overlap with Beam’s, on suspicion of the shooting Friday morning.
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