Robert King Beathard Jr. was born on Jan. 24, 1937, in Zanesville, Ohio, to Robert and Dorothy Falconer Beathard. His father managed a tile company.
A few years after Bobby was born, the family moved to El Segundo, Calif., where his brother was born. Bobby played single-wing tailback on his high school football team. He turned down a chance to attend Louisiana State University and instead went to Cal Poly, where he was a quarterback and defensive back on teams that won 18 of their 20 games. One of his teammates was John Madden, the future Hall of Fame coach and television announcer, who blocked for him.
“I loved football,” he later recalled. “I couldn’t get enough of it. John was the same way.”
Bobby Beathard had tryouts with several teams but failed to earn a spot on a roster. In 1963, he became a part-time scout for the Chiefs. He left to scout for the American Football League, then returned to Kansas City full time in 1966. While he was away, in 1964, the Chiefs drafted his brother, a quarterback at Southern California. Peter Beathard was Len Dawson’s backup in Kansas City for parts of four seasons.
In 1968, Bobby was hired as a scout by the struggling Falcons, who had joined the N.F.L. two seasons before. In his last year with the team, 1971, Atlanta finished 7-6-1, their first winning season. The next year, he was hired as the director of player personnel for the Dolphins, who went 17-0, the N.F.L.’s only perfect season.
After a falling-out with Gibbs ended his long run in Washington in 1988, Mr. Beathard returned to California to surf near his home in San Diego. He worked for a year as a television analyst for NBC but found that he missed being around a team.
In January 1990, he was hired as general manager of the Chargers. In his third season with them, the Chargers won their first division title in more than a decade. Two years later, San Diego made its first and only Super Bowl appearance, losing to the San Francisco 49ers, 49-26. (The Chargers are now based in Los Angeles.)
Mr. Beathard’s first marriage, to Larae Rich, ended in divorce. He married Christine Van Handel in 1978. In addition to his brother, his survivors include his wife; a daughter, Jaime, from his first marriage; three sons, also from that marriage, Kurt, Jeff and Casey, a country music songwriter; and many grandchildren, including C.J. Beathard, a backup quarterback on the Jacksonville Jaguars, and Tucker Beathard, a recording artist.
“Bobby not only built winning teams throughout his career, but he also built winning cultures that lasted beyond his years with an organization,” Jim Porter, the president of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, said in a statement on Wednesday. “He combined an eye for talent with a special gift for working with other people. The results speak for themselves. Bobby’s legacy will be forever preserved in Canton.”
Alex Traub contributed reporting.
