Tuesday, Sept. 1 (AM) – The fall from grace of former University of Illinois head football coach Tim Beckman is not a story just for that state.
Nor is it a story just for the University of Toledo, where Beckman’s success springboarded him to the Illini job.
Nor is it a story just for Ohio State, where Beckman served as an assistant under Jim Tressel.
It is also a story with strong Browns and Northeast Ohio connections.
Beckman was fired several days ago after Illinois officials said an investigation uncovered his poor treatment of players, especially in regards to those with injuries. Things are still being sorted out – Beckman, of course, is innocent until proven guilty and he has said he was wrongly fired and will fight it – but it doesn’t look good.
It’s a shock to those who knew him as he was attending Berea High School when his dad, Dave Beckman, a scout who was hired by Browns head coach Sam Rutigliano and continued to work under his successor, Marty Schottenheimer, was stationed next door at the club’s practice facility and makeshift offices at Baldwin-Wallace University.
All of that and more was recalled in an old-home-week kind of way six years ago when Beckman brought his Toledo Rockets to what was then Cleveland Browns Stadium to face Tressel’s Buckeyes. In a press conference at the stadium not long before the game, Beckman seemed to really enjoy being in his old stomping grounds and had fond memories of hanging around with all of Rutigliano’s Kardiac Kids. He said it was an unbelievable experience for a football-loving kid growing up and helped steer him into coaching.
Beckman looked to be a good guy whose rising reputation as a coach was going to take him to great heights.
Rutigliano thought so, too, saying at the time of his high regard for both Beckmans, “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree in that family.”
But now that apple looks a bit mushy. Some at Illinois might say it’s rotten.
In any event, what has happened is a sad and sudden turn for the negative in what otherwise had been a feel-good story for Berea, Northeast Ohio and longtime followers of the Browns.
