Frank Beamer
Head Coach
Murray State (1981-86)
Virginia Tech (1987-2015)

• Overall Record: 280-144-4 (65.9%)
• Winningest coach in Virginia Tech annals, his overall wins rank sixth in FBS history and 15th in college football annals..
• Led Hokies to first-ever national title appearance in 1999, part of 23 consecutive bowl appearances in his final 23 seasons.
• Guided teams to eight conference titles (Virginia Tech – 7, Murray State - 1).
• 1999 consensus National Coach of the Year and five-time conference Coach of the Year.

After leading Murray State to a 42-23-2 record in six seasons and the 1986 the Ohio Valley Conference title, Frank Beamer had options, to be sure. They get magnified in retrospect, and it becomes clear that if not for a change of heart here or a phone call there, the legacy of the man who helped shape a team, an athletic department and a university would be severely altered, if not downright dulled.
                                           
Take, for instance, the time he gave a school — widely reported to be North Carolina — his word to become their next head coach. Beamer's word was everything. Breaking it, he said, has been his sole regret in life.
         
And still … the Tar Heels had nice facilities, but Virginia Tech had similar plans. And Beamer had helped plant the foundation for only one of those schools' new facilities as a former player. Moreover, a fellow coach told him at the time: Your daughter is about to become a Virginia Tech freshman, and if you leave, you will never return.
 
"I guess I never really had thought about it until he said it, and when I got to thinking about that I just said: Well, it's not anything against the school I was going to; it's all about: I just have such a hard time leaving Virginia Tech," Beamer said.
         
Instead, Beamer became the 15th-winningest coach in college football history, overseeing the Hokies' rise from an independent to a national power in the ACC, all without even a whiff of NCAA impropriety.
 
The winningest coach in Virginia Tech history, Beamer led the Hokies to their first-ever national title game appearance in 1999 – part of an impressive 23 consecutive bowl berths in his final 23 seasons.
         
Along the way, he posted eight straight seasons of 10 wins or more and became so synonymous with his brand of football that it earned the name "Beamer Ball," recognizing the Hokies' big-play ability to score on offense, defense and special teams.
 
Yet if you ask his son, Shane, or even Frank himself, none of those accolades compare to his off-field impact, particularly during Virginia Tech's darkest hour when 32 people lost their lives in a 2007 campus shooting. Beamer regularly walked the campus after the tragedy, and he distinctly remembers one encounter.
 
"There was a bench, and this girl was just sitting there sobbing by herself, and we went over and talked to her and said: 'Look, this is not how Virginia Tech is. And we're not going to let this one sick individual define who Virginia Tech is because that's totally not us,' " Beamer said. "In my mind, we were totally the other way. And I always thought Virginia Tech was a caring place, an I-got-your-back, respect other people (place), but after that day I think we became (that even) moreso."
         
Beamer's coaching legacy carries beyond Blacksburg now, with Shane, who is an assistant coach at Oklahoma, having apprenticed for his dad as both a player and coach and assimilating his father's keys to success of trust and caring.
 
"I think caring about people was big," Frank Beamer said. "If you're down there at the goal line, you've got a better shot at getting into that end zone if players care about coaches, coaches care about players. On defense, I think you have a better shot of keeping them out of your end zone. But I think caring for them and really wanting to do well for your teammates and your coaches, and vice versa. I think that's really important."

Coach Beamer will be honored this Saturday, Oct. 6, with an NFF Hall of Fame On-Campus Salute, presented by Fidelity Investments, during Virginia Tech's game against Notre Dame. He will also be honored by Murray State on Saturday, Oct. 13, during the Racers' game against Tennessee State. Beamer will officially be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame during the 61st NFF Annual Awards Dinner on Dec. 4 in New York City.