While he has probably received dozens of game balls, the one Frank Beamer received this weekend might be the most memorable of them all. Beamer, whose name will forever be synonymous with Virginia Tech football, received the game ball following Sunday’s game between his former team and South Carolina, who is coached by his son, Shane Beamer.
South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers awarded the elder Beamer with the game ball after the Gamecocks’ 24-11 win over the Hokies.
Fittingly, South Carolina’s win included a big play on special teams, which was a perennial strength of Beamer’s Virginia Tech teams. The play was defensive back Vicari Swain’s 80-yard punt return for a score that extended South Carolina’s lead to 17-8 early in the fourth quarter.
“Thought you’d like a special teams touchdown,” Beamer told his father during their postgame embrace.
While he may have been repping the Gamecocks, the love affair between Beamer and Virginia Tech is still very much alive and well. Beamer, who received a loud ovation from the crowd prior to kickoff, delivered the team prayer, asking “to watch over us here, including the two best fan bases in the country. That’s right, I said the two best fan bases in the country.”
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Beamer, 78, was Virginia Tech’s head coach from 1987-15. During that span, the Hokies won 66.2% of their games, had 19 seasons with at least eight wins, 13 seasons with at least 10 wins (including each season from 2004-11), won 11 bowl games and went to a bowl game 23 consecutive seasons from 1993-2015.
In 1999, Virginia Tech had a perfect regular season before being defeated by Florida State in the BCS national championship. The following season, Michael Vick helped lead the Hokies to an 11-1 season that included a Gator Bowl victory over Clemson.
Current Virginia Tech coach Brent Pry shared what Beamer had previously told him regarding Sunday’s matchup. Beamer told Pry he wanted “both teams to play really well.”
“He loves Virginia Tech an awful lot,” Pry said, “but he loves his son first.”
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