Nov. 12, 2014

By Lexi Shurilla, fightingillini.com staff writer | @SusanAlexisS

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For some families, football is a way of life. For Illinois head coach Tim Beckman's family, coaching football is a way of life. The son of longtime college and NFL coach Dave Beckman, Tim has taken after his dad. After going to practice nearly every day while growing up, watching his dad coach became a regular family activity for Tim, which steered him in the direction of becoming a football coach.

The Football Gene

Dave Beckman hadn't planned on getting into coaching. As a business major at Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio, Dave was coached by Lee Tressel - father of former Ohio State coach Jim Tressel - who gave Dave his first shot at coaching football. His junior year in college, Tressel offered Dave the chance to coach the freshmen team after his playing career ended early because of a knee injury. Dave told Tressel that he didn't know enough about football to coach, but Tressel assured him that he would teach him everything he needed to know.

Dave went on to coach at four different levels, coaching 10 years in high school, 10 years in college and 10 years in the pros, where he was in management and draft personnel with the Cleveland Browns and San Diego Chargers. He then became head coach of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the Canadian Football League during the 1990s.

Growing up around the coaching profession, the Beckman family moved frequently with Dave working in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Texas before landing an assistant coaching position at Iowa. Tim and his younger brother, Ted, grew up playing football in the backyard and going to dad's practices where they saw all sides of the game. Ted decided not to go into coaching, but chose to stay involved with football in his job with Cleveland-based Game Plan Financial, where he works with NFL coaches and executives.

The person that really helped guide Tim into coaching was his mother, Pat.

"First of all, you need a coach's wife and my wife Pat was one of the best," Dave said. "She had them at all the different practices and all of the things that were necessary for the boys to learn what the great game of football teaches us.

"Looking back at football and what it teaches, I'm sure Tim knew the difference between winning and losing. Both of my sons did at a very young age because when I would come home, mom would say, 'Let's be a little bit nice to daddy,' or, 'Hey we're celebrating!' I think he knew the difference between winning and losing just as his kids know now."

Coaching is a life of sacrifices and Pat Beckman was the biggest part of the Beckman family growing up as she helped hold the family unit together through the busy lives football created. Being a coach's wife, she had to accept that her life would be different and she would have to do things that weren't always the norm in her family. Between having players over to the house eating (20-30 at a time) and coaches coming over after games, it was an adjustment to keep everyone together, but she held her own. She even makes a scrapbook for Tim every year, just as she did when Dave was coaching.

"I think I probably learned more from mom," Tim said. "The time that dad's gone, you're with your mother a lot and she'd take us to every practice when we were kids because she wanted us to be with our dad. He might not be able to have supper with us at night, so we'd go after practice and run up and down the sidelines and snag balls. My brother and I were just inseparable at that time because it was just me and him and that was part of how my interest in coaching started."

From Player to Coach

Tim let his dad know in high school that he was interested in coaching for a career. Similar to his dad, Tim suffered an injury during his college career at Findlay and became a student assistant under Hall of Fame head coach Dick Strahm.

"It's always been in his blood," Dave said. "He loves to be around players, he loved to be in the huddle and he liked to be at team meetings. He was always there."

After graduating from Findlay in 1988, Tim decided to earn his master's degree and take on coaching at Auburn University. Tim's career eventually brought him back to the state of Ohio in 1998, when he became the defensive coordinator at Bowling Green under Urban Meyer.

He followed that with stints at Ohio State (under Jim Tressel) and Oklahoma State before taking on his first head coaching role at the University of Toledo in 2009. In 2012, he achieved something his family had dreamed about for a long time, a head coaching position in the Big Ten Conference at the University of Illinois.

"It's tough, but the rewards far outweigh the toughness of the job and the time commitment," Tim said. "Just to see your players be successful on and off the football field, that's what it's all about."

Coach Beckman Jr.

As far as passing down the coaching profession to his kids, Beckman said it's their choice if they want to be involved in the sport. Beckman and his wife, Kim, also a Findlay graduate, have three children: Tyler, Lindsay and Alex. Tyler is a volunteer assistant for the Fighting Illini, while Lindsay is a senior at Oklahoma State and Alex is a junior quarterback at Urbana High School.

"It's so rewarding," Tim said of being a coach. "I know you're on this stage and you're the one that a lot of people are looking at, but the bottom line is that I've got 105 guys that look at me every day and I want them to be successful. If it's the fifth-string defensive back to the starting quarterback, you want everybody to enjoy their time here and learn. I really do think we have that atmosphere here.

"I know that my kids have grown up in this and they understand it. I cherish the opportunity that I had to grow up in the family I grew up in. In the game of football, it's learning every day. You've got to be able to adapt to every situation imaginable, from delays of two-and-a-half hours to everything else. It's ever-changing, so you as a football coach have to adjust with what you're given."

Even with the Beckman clan having its roots in Ohio, Dave said it wasn't hard for him to become an Illinois fan. After spending a couple weeks with the team during preseason camp, he knew it was a great group of players. The day Tim took the job at Illinois; Dave put on the orange and blue and hardly ever takes it off.

"The way he handles himself with players," Dave said of one of his favorite parts of watching his son coach. "He's amazing with players. He teaches family and what's good for one is good for them all. He points out no matter what you do, the team is most important and his players seem to react to him because there's no bull about Tim. He tells it the way it is, and sometimes we don't like to hear that, but that's the way football is. There are a lot of kids that don't accept mistakes and he's had to teach this over the years."

Early in Tim's career, his dad would give suggestions for coaching strategies, but Dave said that football has advanced to a point where he doesn't have as much advice to give anymore.

"In my eyes, he's considered one of the best ever," Tim said of his dad. "So I want to be successful for him and you want to be successful for your family. As a son, I went through the great times and had the opportunity to go to games. From being one game away from going to the Super Bowl to not being very good. You remember it as a son, and I want him and Mom to be proud, and I know he always says he is."

Dave Beckman makes a point to come every summer to spend time with the team and with Tim. His best chance of being on the sideline is during Camp Rantoul, which he enjoys visiting every year.

"Can you imagine anything better for a father than sitting in a golf cart, with your two grandsons and granddaughter, watching your son coach a Big Ten team?," Dave asked. "It really doesn't get any better than that."