Beake, who engineered the trade for John Elway, built Denver into back-to-back Super Bowl champions.
John Beake, the longtime Denver Broncos general manager who was instrumental in the trade that brought John Elway to the team, has died at 87. The Broncos announced his death Saturday, saying Beake's family confirmed the news.
Beake spent 14 seasons as Denver's general manager, a tenure that culminated in back-to-back Super Bowl championships following the 1997 and 1998 seasons. Elway, the quarterback Beake helped acquire, became the face of that era and led the franchise to its first titles.
Beake's work in the front office is remembered as foundational to the Broncos' rise into one of the league's premier franchises during the 1990s. The trade for Elway in particular reshaped the team's trajectory for more than a decade, setting up the championship runs that followed. Details on funeral arrangements were not immediately available.