OAKLAND – On a nondescript September morning last fall, John Beam sat in his Laney College office, one decorated with trophies, photos and other reminders of his nearly innumerable football successes as a high school coach at Skyline and at the collegiate level down the road at the Oakland junior college, and admitted that the rumors were true.

He was ready to retire.

But in the same building where Beam was tragically gunned down Thursday, he did not spend the next hour reminiscing about past glories or fretting over how a then-65-year-old would find purpose after four decades leading young men from the sidelines.

“It’s time to leave,” Beam, who died Friday, told me in the same, forceful, intense tone that was his trademark. He then added, “But I can give back in a different way.”

It w

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