He started playing football at an early age for his school St Modan's in Stirling, and later moved up to juvenile level with Dunipace and Cowie before joining Bonnybridge Juniors.
Brought to Kilmarnock by the then manager Malky MacDonald, Beattie spent the first season playing for the reserve team.
His favoured position was inside-left, but he first played for Kilmarnock in an unfamiliar role on the right of the attack during his debut against St Mirren in a League Cup tie at Love Street on 4 September 1954.
In Beattie's first full season at right-half in 1959–60, Kilmarnock enjoyed their most successful season up to that point, finishing as runners-up in the Scottish Football League for the first time in their history, mounting a sustained title challenge, but eventually finished four points behind eventual winners Hearts.
Kilmarnock played very well in America beating Burnley and FC Bayern Munich en route to the Final where they were beaten by Brazilians Bangu.
The following season Kilmarnock finished second in the league, just one point behind Rangers and were again rewarded with a trip to America to compete in the International Soccer Tournament, but this time was not as successful as before.
At the end of the season Beattie had managed to play in every single one of Kilmarnock's 52 games and also won the Player of the Year award.
Beattie was awarded with the captaincy in November 1963 and his first game as captain was against Rangers in the league which ended in a 1–1 draw.
The game at Rugby Park was one of the most incredible matches ever witnessed in the ground's history: Kilmarnock fell further behind after just four minutes but by half-time they led on the night 2–1.
Beattie became the first Kilmarnock captain to bring a national trophy to Rugby Park since Mattha Smith in 1929.
In Kilmarnock's first game in the European Cup, Beattie played at centre-half against Albanians 17 Nentori Tirana.
[6][7] During the SPL match played between Kilmarnock and Hearts on 28 November, a minute's silence was held in his memory.
[8] On Sunday 22 August 2010, ahead of the first home match of the season against Motherwell, Kilmarnock invited the family of Frank Beattie to Rugby Park to witness the renaming of the West Stand, to be referred to from then on as the Frank Beattie Stand.