For the first six years of his head coaching career, Tom Craft arrived at Palomar College's football practices bleary-eyed and covered in plaster and drywall dust.
It was a way to make ends meet.
"Before I was hired full-time, Steve White -- my offensive line coach -- and I were out the door at 5 a.m., met Marv Heintschel at his family's cafe and drove to Sun City," said Craft, who has lived in Valley Center for more than three decades.
"We hung drywall, worked in a sandpit or with a plaster gun until noon, got back in the car, grabbed fast food on the run and drew up a practice plan in the car."
Practice ran from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Craft then taught a class at 5:30 before heading home to his wife and two young kids.
"I'd get home in time for a cold dinner, read the kids a story and tuck them in bed," he said.
"I did that for six years."
Last month, Craft, 71, retired as one of the winningest football coaches in California junior college history. He spent the final 14 seasons at Riverside City College, capping a 30-year junior college career that also included stints as San Diego State's offensive coordinator and head coach. He went 261-78-1, making him the second-winningest coach in California JC history. George Rush went 326-93-4 in 37 years at City College of San Francisco.
Craft got his first taste of junior college as a young man. After a stellar three-sport career at Pacific Grove High School, he enrolled at Monterey Peninsula College.
In 1974, he led the nation in passing.
From there, Craft transferred to San Diego State. He spent his junior season as the backup to Craig Penrose, completing 20 of 28 passes for 209 yards.
Craft began his senior season behind Joe Davis and Pete Tereschuk, both prolific JC passers.
Davis started slowly and was replaced by Tereschuk, who quit the team, came back, and then got hurt, requiring major surgery for a circulation problem.
That opened the door for Craft, whose first start came in Week 2 against Fresno State.
Craft won nine of his 10 starts, and the Aztecs finished the season 10-1. He completed 75 of 109 passes for 809 yards and two touchdowns; he was intercepted just once.
Ted Tollner, who was the offensive coordinator at San Diego State when Craft played, said the coaching staff may not have initially recognized what they had under center.
"Joe Davis and Pete Tereschuk were better pure passers," Tollner said. "But Tom was more athletic. He had a maturity about him. His actions spoke louder than his words.
"He wasn't hung up on his stats or numbers. He just got it done."
The team voted Craft an offensive captain at the end of the season.
That '76 Aztecs team featured future NFL players Herman Edwards, Whip Walton, Mike Douglas, Deacon Turner, Ronnie Smith and Saladin Martin.
It also served as a launching pad for successful coaches. Edwards and John Fox spent decades in the NFL, first as assistants and then as head coaches. And Mike Solari, another member of the '76 team, has coached offensive line for 11 different NFL teams.
Craft's coaching career was more unconventional.
"It took the three of us 10-11 stops to get to the NFL," Edwards said. "Tom was a homebody. He wanted to coach, but he didn't want to move around the country like we did. I admire that, and what he accomplished. And I'm not just talking about on the field.
"Wins and losses are important, but Tom has touched so many lives coaching at the JC level."
Edwards and Craft, both Monterey natives, remained close over the decades. Edwards would speak to Craft's teams, and Craft would bring his family to New York to see Edwards' Jets play.
"He's what's good about the game of football," Edwards said. "He put in the work, and I'm so proud two boys from the same hometown have been successful. We don't see each other as much as we'd like, but our friendship is everlasting."
Craft was hired to coach Palomar in 1983, replacing Mario Mendez. In his six years as a part-timer, Craft's Comets went 30-31-1.
After Craft was given the full-time job -- no more sandpits -- the program took off.
Palomar went 85-25 in 10 seasons, going 11-0 in 1993 and winning national championships in 1991, '93 and 98.
Tom Luginbill was the star of the 1992 team, passing for 3,436 yards on the way to a 10-1 season.
North Carolina State and Washington State offered scholarships. But Luginbill opted to stay at Palomar for another year of development. He had run the Wing-T at Torrey Pines High School, and was still learning the finer points of Craft's downfield passing attack.
"Tom said if I came back, we had a chance to win a national championship, and I could break national records," Luginbill said.
Luginbill threw for a national-record 4,044 yards and 36 TDs in 1993, finishing his career with 7,480 yards, 50 TDs and a 21-1 record.
"We were running a no-huddle, hurry-up offense, signaling in plays," Luginbill said. "We'd use five receivers, running middle screens, jet sweeps.
"He's a genius."
The highlight was a 27-25 bowl win over City College of San Francisco in what turned out to be the national championship game. Luginbill accepted a scholarship to Georgia Tech, where he was ACC Rookie of the Year, finished his college career at Eastern Kentucky and played two years professionally in the Arena Football League. After coaching in the XFL, Arena League and overseas, Luginbill began a career in media.
Luginbill now works as national recruiting director for ESPN and serves as a sideline reporter for the network's college football coverage.
"I went from a Wing-T high school kid to the most-recruited JC player in the nation. Tom was so much ahead of his time," Luginbill said. "Playing for Tom Craft changed my life."
When Tollner was named head coach at SDSU in 1994, he lured Craft away from Palomar, hiring him as the Aztecs' offensive coordinator.
"I recruited Tom as a player," Tollner said. "I coached him, then hired him as an assistant. And he was outstanding. He really expanded our schemes, what we did on offense. He's just a very special person."
After working for four seasons with Tollner, Craft returned to Palomar.
Over the next five seasons, the Comets went 41-15 and won the 1998 national championship- with a 30-21 win over City College of San Francisco.
Palomar's 2001 team went 10-2 and caught the eye of SDSU officials, who were looking for a coach to replace Tollner.
They hired the Palomar College coach with hopes of jump-starting SDSU's offense. Alas, in four years under Craft, the Aztecs went just 19-29.
Craft says now he was "a stopgap guy."
"After the first month I knew I had made a mistake," he said. "They took away our academic adviser, so we had trouble getting kids in school. There was no money. I had $780,000 for my assistants. I tried to get the guys raises - $40,000-60,000 - and was turned down.
"We never had a chance."
After Craft was let go, the Aztecs hired former Iowa All-American and NFL quarterback Chuck Long. He got everything Craft didn't, but went 9-27 in four years.
Craft went back to junior college, working as the associate head coach and offensive coordinator at Mt. SAC. His son Kevin, who played at Valley Center High School and a season at San Diego State, joined him as Mt. SAC's quarterback.
Kevin turned one stellar JC season into a scholarship offer at UCLA. He started two seasons for the Bruins.
Craft was hired as the head coach at Riverside City College in 2010 after the Tigers had gone 1-9 in 2009. RCC went 10-1 in Craft's first season.
In 14 seasons under Craft, the Tigers were 146-22 with 12 10-win seasons and national championships in 2019 and 2023.
Craft's final team was still firing on all cylinders. RCC went 12-1 in 2024, putting up an average of 578.8 yards and 53.9 points per game.
Though Craft's drywall days were long behind him, the 180-mile round-trip daily trek from his Valley Center home to RCC had begun to take its toll.
Craft says he went through three cars in 14 years at Riverside. When RCC offered a retirement bonus option to some of its employees last year, the coach knew which play to call.
"I once asked Ted Tollner when you'd know it was time to retire," Craft said. "He said 'Thomas, you'll know.'