John Beake

The Denver Broncos announced on Saturday 17 October 2026 that John Beake had died. He was 87. The team did not give the place or cause of death, and no cause has been made public. Wikipedia records the date of death as 17 October 2026.

In a statement the club said it was saddened by the passing of a longtime executive "who made an enduring impact on our organization during more than two decades with the team", adding that he had guided the Broncos to five Super Bowl appearances and was a respected leader throughout one of the most successful eras in franchise history. The statement offered condolences to his wife, Marcia, his sons Chip and Chris, and the whole Beake family. Funeral arrangements had not been announced at the time of writing.

John E. Beake was born on 20 December 1938 in Long Branch, New Jersey. At Long Branch High School he lettered in football, baseball and track, and he graduated in 1957.

He went on to Trenton State College, now The College of New Jersey, where he was a four time letter winner in football and graduated in 1961. He then earned a master's degree at Pennsylvania State University, serving as a graduate assistant on Rip Engle's Penn State football staff in 1962. Trenton State inducted him into its Athletics Hall of Fame in 1982.

Beake's first jobs were at New York Military Academy, where he was head basketball coach and an assistant football coach, and at Nyack High School in New York, where he was head football coach for four seasons from 1964. His Nyack teams compiled a record of 24-4-4 and won three league championships.

In 1968 he joined the Kansas City Chiefs as offensive backfield coach under Hank Stram. In his seven seasons in Kansas City the Chiefs won three division titles, the AFL championship and Super Bowl IV, played in January 1970. He spent the 1975 season as offensive coordinator at Colorado State University, then rejoined Stram with the New Orleans Saints as offensive backfield coach in 1976 and 1977.

Beake moved into the front office in 1979, when the Denver Broncos hired him as director of pro personnel. He was promoted to director of player personnel in 1981, and in 1983 he helped put together the trade with the Baltimore Colts that brought quarterback John Elway, a future Hall of Famer, to Denver. He was named assistant general manager in 1984.

The team was sold that year and general manager Hein Poulus resigned. After a season without a general manager, the Broncos promoted Beake to the job on 18 February 1985. He ran the administrative side of the club, concentrating on contracts, and sat third in the team's structure behind the owner and the head coach. Over his 14 years as general manager the Broncos won seven division titles, made 12 playoff appearances and reached five Super Bowls: three defeats in the late 1980s, then victories in Super Bowl XXXII in January 1998 and Super Bowl XXXIII in January 1999. According to the NFL, the first of those titles made him the first upper level administrator to win the Super Bowl as both a coach and an administrator.

On 3 March 1999 he was reassigned as vice president of administration, with Neal Dahlen succeeding him as general manager. He left the organisation in 2000 after 22 years with the club.

After leaving Denver, Beake joined the NFL's league office as vice president of player development and managing director of football operations for NFL Europe. In 2002 he was promoted to vice president of football development and operations. The league announced his retirement on 9 March 2004.

In retirement he stayed close to the Broncos as a long serving member of the committee that elects players to the team's Ring of Fame, the franchise's highest honour.

Beake was married to Marcia. They had two sons, Chip and Chris, and a daughter, Jerilyn, who died before him. According to the Broncos, he was survived by seven grandchildren: Colin, Giselle, Jack, Emilie, Madeline, Vivienne and Pau.

Beake's career spanned more than four decades in football and more than 30 years in the NFL, from the sidelines of a Super Bowl winning Chiefs staff to the front office of the Broncos' first championship teams. He was part of the group that brought John Elway to Denver and ran the club's business of contracts and administration through its rise in the 1980s and 1990s.

The Broncos described him as a pivotal figure in the franchise's history, and his later years on the Ring of Fame committee kept him involved in deciding how that history is honoured.