Legendary Bay Area football coach John Beam died on Friday after being shot on the Laney College campus on Thursday in Oakland. Beam and Laney College starred in the Netflix docuseries Last Chance U in 2020. He was 66.
Beam was the head coach at Laney College from 2012-2024 before retiring to take over as the school’s athletic director.
News emerged on Thursday that Beam was shot on campus, but his condition was unknown. Authorities arrested 27-year-old Cedric Irving Jr. in connection with the shooting on Friday, according to NBC Bay Area.
NBC Bay Area offered more details on Irving and the incident, with information from Assistant Oakland police chief James Beere.
Assistant Oakland police Chief James Beere said Irving did know Beam, but they did not have a relationship.
“This was a very targeted incident, and I will say that Coach Beam, although they did not have a close relationship, was open to helping everybody in our community,” Beere said.
Irving played football at Skyline High School but not when Beam was there, and he is known to “loiter” on and around the Laney campus, Beere said.
“In this case, I can just tell you that the individual that was arrested went specifically to the campus for a specific reason,” Beere said.
Beam began coaching at Oakland’s Skyline High School in the 1980s and won 15 league titles. He joined Laney College as a running backs coach in 2004 before taking over as the junior college’s head coach in 2014, and he went on to win two league titles there.
Between Skyline High School and Laney College, Beam coached over 20 future NFL players. He’s long received wide praise for his abilities as a football coach and as a mentor, and those traits shone through during Season 5 of Last Chance U.
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