In all, about 2,200 people came to the Henry J. Kaiser Center on Saturday to honor legendary football coach John Beam. And those who knew him best said the most important thing about him was simple: He showed up.
“He showed up,” said Kevin Smith, a friend of more than 40 years, addressing the packed hall. “It’s simple. And it’s incredibly powerful. His superpower was his willingness to show up. He showed up with an open heart. He showed up with care. His intention was to show you your best self, even when you didn’t see that in your own self. He didn’t disappear when the season ended.”
Beam’s seasons stretched 45 years on the field and even longer off it. The thousands who gathered after his sudden death in November, many said, were proof of what Beam often called a “win off the field,” a phrase he repeated during the Netflix documentary series “Last Chance U,” which followed his Laney College program.
“This is what a life well-lived looks like,” Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee told the crowd. “This is 45 years of love returned.”
Lee was among several prominent figures who spoke alongside Beam’s wife, Cindi, and daughters Monica and Sonjha. Others included U.S. Rep. Lateefah Simon and two-time Super Bowl champion and Skyline High School graduate Marvel Smith. Former NFL and Cal star running back Marshawn Lynch and current NBA star Damian Lillard were also among the crowd.
Flowers and bouquets lined the stage, and two large framed illustrations of Beamer were displayed on the stage with Hawaiian leis draped atop.
“My dad showed up everywhere for everyone all the time,” Monica Beam said as rotating photos adjacent to her showed showed her dad with players and family members through the years. “And that’s how we will live on.”
For Simon, Beam’s impact was both personal and communal.
“He was a hero,” she said, adding she wanted to speak about Beam’s hands, because “those hands did holy work. This man built a brotherhood and those brothers have manifested it into their communities. To (the Beam family), thank you for sharing him with us.”
John Beam’s daughters Sonjha Phillips, right, and Monica Beam, left, react as they address the celebration of life for Laney College and Skyline High School football coach John Beam at the Henry J. Kaiser Center For The Arts in Oakland, Calif., on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026. (Carlos Avila Gonzalez/San Francisco Chronicle via AP, Pool)
John Beam’s daughters Sonjha Phillips, right, and Monica Beam, left, react as they address the celebration of life for Laney College and Skyline High School football coach John Beam at the Henry J. Kaiser Center For The Arts in Oakland, Calif., on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026. (Carlos Avila Gonzalez/San Francisco Chronicle via AP, Pool)
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John Beam’s daughters Sonjha Phillips, right, and Monica Beam, left, react as they address the celebration of life for Laney College and Skyline High School football coach John Beam at the Henry J. Kaiser Center For The Arts in Oakland, Calif., on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026. (Carlos Avila Gonzalez/San Francisco Chronicle via AP, Pool)
Also speaking was New Orleans Saints defensive back Rezjohn Wright, a former Laney standout featured on “Last Chance U,” and former San Francisco Giants catcher Brian Johnson, who played quarterback for Beam at Skyline. About 20 of Beam’s classmates from Kearney High School in San Diego’s class of 1977 also attended.
Monica Beam recalled a moment that captured her father’s philosophy. At the Super Bowl, she hesitated to jump from the stands onto the field to celebrate with Smith. Her father didn’t hesitate.
“My dad said, ‘C’mon girl,’” she said. “So I just jumped. What it taught me is this: Sometimes you don’t wait for permission. Sometimes you just leap and go for it, because somebody you trust believes that you can.”
Smith said he had never wanted to play football, preferring baseball. Beam kept recruiting him anyway.
“He saw something in me,” Smith said. “I had no clue what it was, but I went after it to please him. I always hear his voice in all aspects of my life.”
Wright echoed that sentiment.
“Anybody he was around he impacted positively,” Wright said. “It’s a testament to how he was. … Him being who he was taught me how to be a better person.”
The grief in the room was sharpened by the violence of Beam’s death. He was 66 when he died Nov. 14, a day after he was shot inside the athletic field house at Laney College. Beam had remained the school’s athletic director after stepping down from a 45-year football coaching career following the 2024 season.
“He was larger than life,” Lee said. “For 45 years, he poured everything he had into Oakland, not because it was easy. It was because it was his home. He mentored thousands including my own children. He believed in Oakland’s young people, when he told they were not worth believing in. He saw promise where others saw problems. He saw leaders where others saw limits.”
Wright shared how Beam supported his family after Wright’s father was fatally shot in 2017.
“He showed up at the door of our home,” Wright said, “and said he would not let us fail.”
A towering figure in Oakland sports, Beam built Skyline High into the city’s premier public school football program, winning 160 games and 11 Oakland Section titles from 1987 to 2003. More than 100 of his players went on to play college football.
In 13 seasons as head coach at Laney College, Beam’s teams won 60% of their games and captured the California Community College Athletic Association championship in 2018. About 90% of his players either graduated or transferred to four-year schools.
“Ninety percent,” Lee said. “That’s not a number. That’s a life changed.”
Speaker after speaker returned to the rituals that defined Beam’s culture — including his familiar call of “Two claps,” met each time by the audience’s sharp response: clap, clap.
“His impact was in every area of my life,” Smith said. “He was a father figure. A mentor. A friend.”
At one point, Kevin Smith, Beam’s childhood friend, asked those who loved Beam to carry his legacy forward.
“Find one person, maybe several, who need somebody to show up for them,” he said. “Show up with heart. Show up with patience. Show up when it’s inconvenient. If you do that, Coach Beam’s legacy doesn’t end.”
Later, Sonjha Beam asked how many in the crowd had been coached, mentored or inspired by her father — and how many believed their lives were better because of him.
Every one of the 2,200 people stood.
“His impact,” said pastor Joe Cannon of the Gospel Community Church in Oakland, “was like lightning across the sky.”
Beam died a day after he was shot at Laney College. The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office has charged a 27-year-old Oakland man in the case; court documents indicate his attorney may pursue a mental-health defense.
