Tom Beck (born December 21, 1940) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

player and coach. He served as the head football coach at Illinois Benedictine College—now

Benedictine University Benedictine University is a private Roman Catholic university in Lisle, Illinois. It was founded in 1887 as St. Procopius College by the Benedictine monks of St. Procopius Abbey in the Pilsen community on the West Side of Chicago. The institu ...

—from 1970 to 1974,

Elmhurst College Elmhurst University is a private university in Elmhurst, Illinois. It has a tradition of service-oriented learning and an affiliation with the United Church of Christ. The university changed its name from Elmhurst College on July 1, 2020. Hist ...

from 1976 to 1983, and

Grand Valley State University Grand Valley State University (GVSU, GV, or Grand Valley) is a public university in Allendale, Michigan. It was established in 1960 as Grand Valley State College. Its main campus is situated on approximately west of Grand Rapids. The universit ...

from 1985 to 1990. During his

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

head coaching career, he compiled a 137–52–1 record, a .724 winning percentage. All three institutions where Beck coached had historically losing teams before he turned them into nationally ranked programs. Beck was inducted into the

College Football Hall of Fame The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and interactive attraction devoted to college football. The National Football Foundation (NFF) founded the Hall in 1951 to immortalize the players and coaches of college football that were vote ...

as a coach in 2004. Beck played football at

Northern Illinois University Northern Illinois University (NIU) is a public research university in DeKalb, Illinois. It was founded as Northern Illinois State Normal School on May 22, 1895, by Illinois Governor John P. Altgeld as part of an expansion of the state's system ...

, where he started on offense, defense, and played special teams. He was the last two-way player in the history of

Northern Illinois Huskies football The Northern Illinois Huskies football team are a college football program representing Northern Illinois University (NIU) in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of college football. NIU football plays its home games at Huskie Stadium on the cam ...

. Beck was All-Conference on both offense and defense, an

Academic All-America The Academic All-America program is a student-athlete recognition program. The program selects an honorary sports team composed of the most outstanding student-athletes of a specific season for positions in various sports—who in turn are giv ...

n, and was inducted into the Northern Illinois University Athletics Hall of Fame. He has also been inducted into the athletic hall of fame at Elmhurst College, Benedictine University, and Grand Valley State University as a coach. Beck served as the

offensive coordinator An offensive coordinator is a member of the coaching staff of an American football or Canadian football team who is in charge of the team's offense. Generally, along with the defensive coordinator and the special teams coordinator, this coach re ...

at Northern Illinois University in 1975, at the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main campu ...

in 1990, and at the

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Universit ...

in 1991. He coached one season in 1984 with the

Chicago Blitz The Chicago Blitz was a professional American football team that played in the United States Football League in the mid-1980s. They played at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois. Team history The Blitz were one of the twelve charter franchis ...

of the

United States Football League The United States Football League (USFL) was a professional American football league that played for three seasons, 1983 through 1985. The league played a spring/summer schedule in each of its active seasons. The 1986 season was scheduled to be ...

(USFL) before the league folded. While head coach at Grand Valley State, Beck gave Brian Kelly his first coaching job as a graduate assistant. Kelly was Beck's successor at Grand Valley State in 1991 and is currently the head coach at LSU. After his coaching career, Beck spent time as a scout for the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. ...

and

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine NF ...

. After scouting, he was an analyst for nine years for two different web sites, IrishEyes and Irish Today, that covered

Notre Dame football The Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team is the intercollegiate football team representing the University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, Indiana, north of the city of South Bend, Indiana. The team plays its home games at the campus' Notre Dame S ...

Personal life

Beck is married to Joyce Beck, and has two daughters, Kelly and Laura, along with two grandchildren, Morgan and Thomas.

Head coaching record

College

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Beck, Tom 1940 births Living people American football halfbacks American football quarterbacks Benedictine Eagles football coaches Buffalo Bills scouts Chicago Bears scouts Elmhurst Bluejays football coaches Grand Valley State Lakers football coaches Illinois Fighting Illini football coaches Northern Illinois Huskies football coaches Northern Illinois Huskies football players Notre Dame Fighting Irish football coaches United States Football League coaches High school football coaches in Illinois College Football Hall of Fame inductees Coaches of American football from Illinois Players of American football from Chicago