BLACKSBURG, Va. – Nearly seven seasons out of retirement, legendary Hall of Fame Coach Frank Beamer has a bit more time on his hands.
“A typical day for Frank Beamer involves I-77,” Beamer said. “My daughter lives in Charlotte with 3 kids, my son in Columbia with 3 kids so grandmothers are happy when grandkids are around. So I want to keep their grandmother happy so we’re somewhere on 77.”
But on a hot July morning, Beamer found time to come down to my level and go one-on-one in a game of mini golf at Cox’s driving range in Blacksburg.
Frank Beamer has become synonymous with Blacksburg and Virginia Tech — and rightly so.
The legendary Hall of Famer spent 29 seasons as the head coach of the Hokies leading them to more than twenty bowl games including the Nokia Sugar Bowl where the Hokies played Florida State for the BCS National Championship. But Beamer’s journey didn’t start as successful as it ended. It took six seasons before Virginia Tech reached its first Bowl Game.
“Fortunately we had Dave Braine and a president that understood we needed time,” Beamer said. “They saw we did things the right way, working to graduate our kids, and thank goodness people were in place to give us the time to recruit and get where we needed to be.”
As we went back and forth from hole to hole, Beamer shared more insight on what made things work in Blacksburg, who and what shaped him into the man he is today, and his outlook on the Brent Pry era of Hokies football.