John E. Beake (born December 20, 1938) is a retired American football executive who served as general manager of the Denver Broncos of the National Football League from 1985 to 1998.
Beake graduated from Long Branch High School in 1957 and Trenton State College in 1961.[2] He then earned a master's degree from Penn State, where he served as a graduate assistant under Rip Engle.[3] He was the head basketball and assistant football coach at New York Military Academy from 1963 to 1964. He then spent four seasons as the head football coach at Nyack High School, where he compiled a 24–4–4 record and won three league champions.[3] In 1968 he was hired as an assistant coach by the Kansas City Chiefs.[4] In his seven seasons in Kansas City, the Chiefs won three division titles, one conference championship, and Super Bowl IV. After one season as the offensive coordinator at Colorado State, Beake rejoined his Chiefs' former boss, Hank Stram, in New Orleans.[3]
In 1979, Beake joined the Denver Broncos as director of pro personnel.[5] In 1981 he was promoted to director of player personnel.[6] In 1984 he was named assistant general manager.[7] Shortly thereafter, the Broncos were sold and general manager Hein Poulus resigned.[8] After going without a general manager for the 1984 season, the Broncos promoted Beake on February 18, 1985.[8][9] Beake ran the administrative side of the Broncos, focusing on contract negotiations.[10] He was third in the team's power structure behind the owner and head coach.[11] During Beake's tenure as GM, the Broncos appeared in four Super Bowls and won one of them.[12] On March 3, 1999, Beake was reassigned to the position of vice president of administration and Neal Dahlen succeeded him as general manager.[13] He left the Broncos organization the following year to become the National Football League's vice president of player development and managing director of football operations for NFL Europe.[5] In 2002 he was promoted to vice president of football development and operations.[14] The NFL announced Beake's retirement on March 9, 2004.[15]
