Remembering Legendary Football Coach John Beam, As Oakland Reels From Two Campus Shootings

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KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 19 November 2025

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Two campus shootings last week rocked Oakland. On Wednesday, a 15-year-old Skyline High School student was injured in a shooting by two minors on campus. On Thursday, beloved former football coach, John Beam, was shot at his job as athletic director for Laney College and died the next day. We’ll hear from those who knew Coach Beam about his life and legacy and we’ll discuss what Oakland schools are doing to address safety concerns. Guests: Esther Kaplan, deputy editor, Oaklandside Joseph Dycus, sports reporter, East Bay Times Nelson Alegria, executive director of safety, Oakland Unified School District Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:00.0	Sponsorship of this podcast comes from Stanford Summer Session, allowing visiting students to study at
0:06.1	Stanford for an academic term. Learn more at summer.standford.edu.
0:11.9	Sources and methods, the crown jewels of the intelligence community, shorthand for,
0:17.4	how do we know what's real, who told us? If you have those answers, you're on the inside,
0:22.5	and NPR wants to bring you there, from the Pentagon to the State Department to spy agencies,
0:27.9	listen to understand what's really happening and what it means for you. Sources and Methods,
0:32.6	the new National Security podcast from NPR.
0:36.6	From KQED.
0:38.7	Welcome to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal.
0:41.6	We begin this morning talking about John Beam.
0:44.8	Beam was, yes, a football coach.
0:47.1	He began his head coaching career at Skyline High School before moving over to Laney
0:51.3	college 20 years ago.
0:53.2	At Skyline and at Laney, his teams were very successful winning titles over the years,
0:57.7	but it was Beam's mentorship of young people that comes up again and again.
1:02.6	This was a man who not only knew how to command respect, but how to give it,
1:06.9	and he inspired an incredible loyalty from the players that he worked with.
1:11.8	Here's Chicago Bears player, Rishon Wright, on what John Beam meant to him.
1:16.5	He meant the world to me.
1:18.5	When my dad was killed, he came to my house, he got me out of bed,
1:22.3	and someone I could confide in, someone that I love dearly.
1:29.5	Bean stepped in as a father figure of a father woe.
	...

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