Frank Beamer
Franklin Mitchell Beamer is an American former college football player and coach, most notably for the Virginia Tech Hokies.
Beamer was a defensive cornerback for Virginia Tech from 1966 to 1968. He began coaching as a graduate assistant at the University of Maryland in 1972, and was the head football coach at Murray State University from 1981 to 1986. He became the head football coach at Virginia Tech in 1987, where he stayed for the remainder of his coaching career until 2015. He was one of the longest tenured active coaches in NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision and was the winningest active coach at that level at the time of his retirement. Upon retiring, Beamer accepted a position as special assistant to the Virginia Tech athletic director, where he focuses on athletic development and advancement. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2018.
Early life and playing career
Beamer was born in Mount Airy, North Carolina, and grew up on a farm in Fancy Gap, Virginia.Beamer is a direct descendant of the notorious Allen clan of Carroll County, Virginia. In 1912, during a court trial, his great-uncle, Floyd Allen, fired rounds in a spasm of violence. The courtroom shooting left five people dead, including the judge, a prosecutor, and the county sheriff.
In 1953, at the age of seven, Beamer suffered a life-altering accident. After using a push broom to keep a pile of burning trash in place, he returned the broom to its place in the garage, unaware that it was smoldering. A spark ignited a nearby can of gasoline, which exploded in front of him. His 11-year-old brother Barnett saved him by rolling him around on the ground. He was left with burns on his shoulders, chest, and the right side of his neck. Over the next several years, Beamer underwent dozens of skin graft procedures, leaving him with permanent scarring.
Beamer attended high school in Hillsville, Virginia, and earned 11 varsity letters in three different sports: football, basketball, and baseball. In 1966, he attended Virginia Tech and played football. He was a starting cornerback for 3 years, playing in the 1966 and 1968 Liberty Bowls. He graduated from Virginia Tech in 1969 with Omicron Delta Kappa distinction. After graduating, Beamer was an assistant football coach at Radford High School, while attending Radford University for graduate school.
Coaching career
Early coaching positions
Beamer began as an assistant at Radford High School from 1969 through 1971. His college coaching experience started in 1972, when he became a graduate assistant for the University of Maryland, College Park. After one season, he became an assistant coach at The Citadel under Bobby Ross. He spent seven seasons at The Citadel, the last two as the defensive coordinator.Murray State
Beamer was hired as the defensive coordinator at Murray State University in 1979 under head coach, Mike Gottfried. In 1981, after two seasons as defensive coordinator, he was promoted to head coach. In his six years as head coach, Beamer compiled a record of 42–23–2. He hired former Murray State defensive back Bud Foster as a graduate assistant in 1981. Foster later joined Beamer's coaching staff at Virginia Tech in 1987.Virginia Tech
Early years (1987–1992)
On December 22, 1986, Beamer was hired as the head coach at Virginia Tech, replacing Bill Dooley, the winningest coach in school history to date. However, Dooley had been forced to resign due to numerous NCAA violations. Beamer signed a four-year contract worth $80,000 annually, hired by Virginia Tech's new athletic director, Dale Baughman, also replacing Dooley in that capacity. Beamer took over a Virginia Tech football program that had reached six bowl games to that point.As a result of the violations uncovered under Dooley's watch, the Hokies were limited to 85 total scholarships in 1988 and 1989, and 17 initial scholarships in 1989. The sanctions hampered the Hokies, and Beamer went a combined 5–17 in 1987 and 1988. Beamer's record in his first six seasons was 24-40-2, a win percentage of.385. After the team went 2–8–1 in 1992, athletic director Dave Braine believed in Beamer and thought he deserved more time. It proved to be a wise decision; the Hokies would not suffer another losing season under Beamer's watch. At his hall of fame induction, Beamer said he would have been unlikely to survive his early years had he been coaching in the 2010s.
Big East (1993–2003)
In 1993, the Hokies would go 9-3 and won the Independence Bowl; at the time, it was only the fourth time in school history that the Hokies had won as many as nine games in a season. The Hokies would go on to a combined record of 75–21 from 1993 to 2000. This included the Hokies' first major-bowl appearances in school history, after the 1995, 1996 and 1999 seasons. The peak year in this stretch was 1999, when the Hokies went 11–0 in the regular season earning a spot to the 2000 Sugar Bowl to play Florida State for the BCS National Championship. Behind the play of quarterback Michael Vick, Virginia Tech led Florida State 29–28 early in the fourth quarter, but lost 46–29. The Hokies finished second in the AP Poll and third in the Coaches' Poll–the highest final rankings in school history, and the highest for a Division I team from Virginia.In 2000, Virginia Tech had its second straight 11-win season, only losing to Miami when Heisman candidate Michael Vick was suffering a severe ankle sprain and did not start. Using a simple mathematical formula used by College Football Reference to rate every season for every major college football team, it was Tech's best year in history, and remains the best in 2023. As Tech was in a bye week preparing for its annual game with UVA, Beamer says he was contacted by the University of North Carolina and offered the job to replace soon-to-be fired coach Carl Torbush. Beamer reports in his book, Let me be Frank: My Life at Virginia Tech, that he told UNC that he would accept the job on the off-Saturday the week before the UVA game. "It would be one of the biggest mistakes of my life," he says in the book. He visited Chapel Hill on the Sunday following the UVA win to, as he says in the book, "work out the details." "I never signed a contract, and they wanted me to stay that Sunday night and have the introductory press conference on Monday morning....I know they were thinking if we got on that airplane to come home, I would change my mind. And that's exactly what I did." On the eve of the UVA game, Tech had made a very public announcement that Beamer had been offered a $1 million salary if he stayed. What Beamer says made the difference was a $100,000 bump in his assistant coaches' salaries that made them one of the top three paid coaching staffs in the nation, and a commitment to continue expanding the football facilities at his alma mater. He woke up Monday morning in Blacksburg, and wrote in his book that he said to himself "his is my alma mater. This is where I want to be. And this is where we will be as long as I am coaching."
ACC (2004–2015)
Virginia Tech continued its bowl eligibility streak into the new millennium and won the 2004 ACC Championship in its first season in the league. Over the course of the next seven seasons, from 2005 to 2011, Virginia Tech won at least 10 games every season. The Hokies were the only team in the country to do so. Beamer's record from 1993 to 2011 was 185–58 for a winning percentage of.761. This was the 4th highest win percentage in the country over this period. Although Virginia Tech went just 28–23 from 2012 to 2015, the Hokies still finished each season with a winning record and a bowl bid.On November 1, 2015, Beamer announced his retirement from coaching, effective at the end of the 2015 season. He was carried off the field after beating Virginia in the final regular season game to become bowl eligible. Beamer's last game was a 55–52 win over Tulsa in the Independence Bowl on December 26. Memphis' Justin Fuente replaced Beamer as the head football coach at Virginia Tech at the end of the 2015 season.
File:2015 Independence Bowl.jpg|thumb|263x263px|Beamer takes the field with his team for the final time in the 2015 Camping World Independence Bowl in Shreveport, Louisiana, on December 26, 2015.
Coaching records and awards
Beamer amassed an overall record of 238–121–2 in his 29 years at the school. His teams went to postseason play after every season from 1993 until his retirement in 2015. The Hokies' consecutive bowl appearances streak—the longest in the nation at the time—continued under his successor, Justin Fuente, until the 2020 season. At the time of his retirement, Beamer owned all of the Hokies' 11-win seasons in school history, as well as all of the seasons in which the Hokies won 10 games on the field. Bill Dooley's last team, in 1986, finished with nine wins on the field, but was awarded a tenth win by forfeit.Beamer's teams won three Big East championships and four ACC titles. Beamer won many awards over his career. He was named the Big East Coach of the Year three times, in 1995, 1996, and 1999. He also was named the ACC Coach of the Year in 2004 and 2005.
Bowl games
Beamer led the Virginia Tech Hokies to 23 consecutive bowl games beginning in his seventh season in 1993 until he retired in 2015. It was the second-longest active consecutive bowl streak in the country at the time of his retirement.| # | Season | Bowl Game | Stadium | Location | Opponent | Result | Record |
| 1 | 1993 | Independence Bowl | Independence Stadium | Shreveport, LA | Indiana Hoosiers | Win 45–20 | 1–0 |
| 2 | 1994 | Gator Bowl | Ben Hill Griffin Stadium | Gainesville, FL | Tennessee Volunteers | Loss 45–23 | 1–1 |
| 3 | 1995 | Sugar Bowl | Louisiana Superdome | New Orleans, LA | Texas Longhorns | Win 28–10 | 2–1 |
| 4 | 1996 | Orange Bowl | Pro Player Stadium | Miami Gardens, FL | Nebraska Cornhuskers | Loss 41–21 | 2–2 |
| 5 | 1997 | Gator Bowl | Alltel Stadium | Jacksonville, FL | North Carolina Tar Heels | Loss 42–3 | 2–3 |
| 6 | 1998 | Music City Bowl | Vanderbilt Stadium | Nashville, TN | Alabama Crimson Tide | Win 38–7 | 3–3 |
| 7 | 1999 | Sugar Bowl | Louisiana Superdome | New Orleans, LA | Florida State Seminoles | Loss 46–29 | 3–4 |
| 8 | 2000 | Gator Bowl | Alltel Stadium | Jacksonville, FL | Clemson Tigers | Win 41–20 | 4–4 |
| 9 | 2001 | Gator Bowl | Alltel Stadium | Jacksonville, FL | Florida State Seminoles | Loss 30–17 | 4–5 |
| 10 | 2002 | San Francisco Bowl | Pacific Bell Park | San Francisco, CA | Air Force Falcons | Win 20–13 | 5–5 |
| 11 | 2003 | Insight Bowl | Bank One Ballpark | Phoenix, AZ | California Golden Bears | Loss 52–49 | 5–6 |
| 12 | 2004 | Sugar Bowl | Louisiana Superdome | New Orleans, LA | Auburn Tigers | Loss 16–13 | 5–7 |
| 13 | 2005 | Gator Bowl | Alltel Stadium | Jacksonville, FL | Louisville Cardinals | Win 35–24 | 6–7 |
| 14 | 2006 | Chick-fil-A Bowl | Georgia Dome | Atlanta, GA | Georgia Bulldogs | Loss 31–24 | 6–8 |
| 15 | 2007 | Orange Bowl | Pro Player Stadium | Miami Gardens, FL | Kansas Jayhawks | Loss 24–21 | 6–9 |
| 16 | 2008 | Orange Bowl | Pro Player Stadium | Miami Gardens, FL | Cincinnati Bearcats | Win 20–7 | 7–9 |
| 17 | 2009 | Chick-fil-A Bowl | Georgia Dome | Atlanta, GA | Tennessee Volunteers | Win 37–14 | 8–9 |
| 18 | 2010 | Orange Bowl | Pro Player Stadium | Miami Gardens, FL | Stanford Cardinal | Loss 40–12 | 8–10 |
| 19 | 2011 | Sugar Bowl | Mercedes-Benz Superdome | New Orleans, LA | Michigan Wolverines | Loss 23–20 | 8–11 |
| 20 | 2012 | Russell Athletic Bowl | Florida Citrus Bowl Stadium | Orlando, FL | Rutgers Scarlet Knights | Win 13–10 | 9–11 |
| 21 | 2013 | Sun Bowl | Sun Bowl Stadium | El Paso, TX | UCLA Bruins | Loss 42–12 | 9–12 |
| 22 | 2014 | Military Bowl * | Navy–Marine Corps Memorial Stadium | Annapolis, MD | Cincinnati Bearcats | Win 33–17 | 10–12 |
| 23 | 2015 | Independence Bowl | Independence Stadium | Shreveport, LA | Tulsa Golden Hurricane | Win 55–52 | 11–12 |