The Late Chris Beaty Honored by the Program He Loved so Dearly with Annual Award

Written by Matt Smith

Chris Beaty or ‘Mr.Indianapolis’ as some of his friends would call him was a walk-on football player for the Hoosiers who was tragically killed almost a year ago. Beaty played his high school football for Cathedral high school and won multiple state championships.

Beaty played football for IU from 2000-2003 and became a successful businessman following his time at IU. However, he stayed very close to his teammates following his time on the team as well. Beaty was an active alumni and would organize events for when players came back to town to watch the games.

According to a Fan Nation article his love for his alma mater was off the charts as it was for his friends as well.

In June 2020, during the pandemic, Beaty was killed in the street trying to stop  a robbery, he was shot multiple times and was pronounced dead on the scene. This devastated the IU football program.

“He was an amazing Hoosier and so supportive of our program,” said head coach Tom Allen at the award ceremony on Thursday. “He embraced me when I became the head coach and continued to support us in every way possible.”

On Thursday, at the team’s award ceremony Allen announced the Chris Beaty walk on of the year award. This was won by Davion Ervin-Poindexter and Christian Harris.

On Wednesday, Allen met with the media and spoke very highly of Beaty and what he meant to the program. Even though Allen never knew it, he coached against him while Beaty was at Cathedral and Allen was an assistant coach at Ben Davis. 

“He was a very caring, passionate person towards the things that he valued in his life. That was a big emphasis on others. He was so selfless. I have said it before and I will say it again, he lived out LEO as a person,” Allen said on Wednesday.

Allen continued to speak very highly of Beaty throughout the rest of the press conference and was honored to name the award after him.

“He really reached out to me in the beginning. He came down here, we met face-to-face, and we had some really great times together. It was very obvious from the very beginning his love and passion for Indiana Football. When I became the head coach, that continued. His support was unwavering. He is a special person to the program and to the University,” Allen said. 

“I wanted to honor him with an award named after him. He came here as a walk-on, earned his opportunity here, earned his respect, and continued to grow as he graduated from Indiana and then became an unbelievable supporter of our program from Indianapolis and everything he did for that community. I do not ever want him to be forgotten and that is special for us. I talked to his family and I know that it meant a lot to his family as well. He is a special, special person that we always want to honor,” Allen continued. 

Allen will continue to give out this award every year to honor Beaty and everything he meant to this program.