Craft among 8 inductees into Palomar Hall of Fame
SAN MARCOS (1/10/2019) -- Tom Craft, who coached Palomar's football team to three national championships, will be one of eight inductees into the Comets' Athletic Hall of Fame Class of 2018 on Saturday, Jan. 26, 2019 at St. Mark Golf Club at Lake San Marcos, beginning at 5 p.m.
Craft will be joined in the induction class by Paul Castro (Baseball, Football), Jimmy Clark (Football), Dave Funderburk (Cross Country, Track & Field), Steve Krainock (Football), Tyler Lorenzen (Football), Ginalee Davis Baird (Softball) and Dr. Alan Tanner (Wrestling, Football).
Cost is $60 per person, and table and sponsor opportunities are available.
For further information and reservations, phone (760) 744-1150, ext. 2460, or e-mail blittleton@palomar.edu.
TOM CRAFT / FOOTBALL COACH -- 1983-1993, 1997-2001
Tom Craft built the modern Comet football legacy. A six-time regional and state Coach of Tom Craft built the modern Comet football legacy. Year, his teams won the school's first of three (and only) state titles and national championships in 1991, 1993 and 1998. In his last 10 years at Palomar, the Comets won nine conference titles and made 10 post-season appearances, winning nine bowl championships. With a record of 115-56-1 in 16 seasons, Craft remains the winningest coach in Palomar football history. A hall of fame athlete at Monterey Peninsula College, he went on to quarterback San Diego State to a 10-1 record in 1976. Craft graduated from SDSU as a Kinesiology major and holds received a Master's degree from Azusa Pacific University. Following stints as Offensive Coordinator and eventual head coach at SDSU and as Offensive Coordinator at Mt. SAC, he has been head coach at Riverside City College since 2010, where his teams have won eight conference titles.
PAUL CASTRO / BASEBALL, FOOTBALL -- 1961-1963
A 1960 graduate of Assumption High in Davenport, Iowa, Paul Castro came he was Palomar's Athlete of the Year in his graduation year of 1963. He was All-South Central Conference in both sports and was a pro prospect in baseball but sustained major arm damage in going the route to defeat Oceanside-Carlsbad in 12 innings as the Comets clinched the conference when his triple drove in the winning run. Castro completed his four-year degree at Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois and received his Masters in 1985. At Bettendorf (Iowa) High, where he was wrestling assistant coach for 18 years and head coach for six years, he was selected by Wrestling USA as 1982 National High School Assistant Coach of the Year when five of his former Bettandorf wrestlers qualified for the NCAA Division I Championships at Iowa City. He has been a school board member in Bettendorf, Iowa.
GINALEE DAVIS BAIRD / SOFTBALL -- 2006-2007
A local product hailing from Carlsbad High School, Ginalee Davis fashioned a stellar softball career at Palomar College. As a freshman, Davis became an immediate starter, helping lead Coach Mark Eldridge's team to a 35-13 win-loss record and a Pacific Coast Conference championship. In her softball year, she developed into a power—hitting slugger, posting a .385 batting average while belting nine doubles, two triples and eight home runs. In the process, she drove in a team-high 36 runs in 48 games played. Davis moved on to Lubbock (Texas) Christian University, where she batted .446 with 87 runs batted in and producing an .845 slugging percentage. During her years with the Chaparrals, Lubbock Christian played in back-to-back NAIA World Series, winning the National Championship in 2008 at Decatur, Alabama. Davis returned to Palomar as an assistant coach between 2010 and 2014.
JIMMY CLARK / FOOTBALL -- FOOTBALL -- 1978-1979
Reccognized as the first star pass receiver of the Coach Tom Craft era at Palomar (when Craft was offensive coordinator prior to becoming head coach, Jimmy Clark was Mission Confefrence Offensive Player of the year in 1979 and the Comets' first ever J.C. Grid-Wire first-team All-American. An Escondido High School product,k Clark played wide receiver for the Comets and set Palomar records for receptions i a single season (74, leading the Mission Conference by 20 receptions over runner-up Mike Eddo of Saddleback), and receiving yards in a single season (1,042) and a single game (12, for 127 yards vs. San Diego City College in his sophomore season of 1979. Clark accepted an athletic scholarship to the University of Nevada-Reno, where he starred for twlo seasons with the Wolf Pack before signing a free agent contract with the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League.
DAVE FUNDERBURK / CROSS COUNTRY, TRACK & FIELD -- 1965-1967
Dave Funderburk, who came to Palomar College out of nearby Vista High School, ranks among the most successful distance runners ever at Palomar College. Under the direction of Coach Larry Knuth, Funderburk burst on to the Comet track and field scene by winning the Southern California Regional mile run in his freshman year. A week later, he took third in the state championship meet. With a hand in on six individual and relay team school records by the fall of his sophomore year, Funderburk won the Aztec Invitational cross country title among a field of over 100 runners. After winning the San Diego Indoor Invitational mile the next spring, Funderburk anchored the Comets' four-mile relay team to the second-fastest JC time ever. He went on to accept an athletic scholarship to San Jose State University, where he was a member of the 1969 NCAA Outdoor Men's Track and Field Championship team that included Tommie Smith, John Carlos and Lee Evans.
STEVE KRAINOCK / FOOTBALL -- 1978-1979
Steve Krainock was the first no-huddle-offense quarterback under then-assistant football coach Tom Craft. The duo became recognized innovators of the no-huddle ofese, for which Coach Craft became a national clinic speaker and the modern Palomar College football program was born. A Mt. Carmel High School grad, Krainock utilized the system's advantages at Palomar to pass for 2,983 yards in 1979, which earned for him an athletic scholarship to the University of Richmond. In two seasons (1980-81) as the starter for the Spiders, who went 0-11 before his arrival and 0-10 after his departure, Krainock engineered nine wins in 20 games, completing a total of 228 passes in 449 attempts (50.8 percent), connecting for 20 touchdowns and running for five more. After college, Krainock signed as a free agent and gained NFL pre-season experience with the Seattle Seahawks, San Francisco 49ers and San Diego Chargers.
TYLER LORENZEN / FOOTBALL (2006)
A transfer from Iowa State, Tyler Lorenzen came to Palomar College in 2006 and selected as State Offensive Player of the Year and a first-team JC Grid-Wire All-American. He passed for 2,960 yards on the season and his 3,796 yards of total offense rank second only to Tom Luginbill, who set the all-time Comet mark at 4,041 yards in 1993. His 37 completions against then nationally No. 1- ranked Saddleback is also second on the school's all-time list. Lorenzen went on to the University of Connecticut, where he led the Huskies to a Big East Conference title and consecutive bowl berths. In his junior year at UConn, he passed for 2,367 yards and 13 touchdowns, rushed for 328 yards, was his team's MVP and an All-Big East selection. He went on to play in the National Football League for the Jacksonville Jaguars and New Orleans Saints, with whom he earned a Super Bowl ring in 2010.
DR. ALAN TANNER / WRESTLING, FOOTBALL (1976-1978)
A graduate of Orange Glen High School in Escondido, Dr. Alan Tanner became a two-time community college wrestling All-American in the heavyweight division under the direction of Head Coach John Woods at Palomar. Tanner also played on Comet football teams in the 1976 and 1977 seasons. He transferred on to Clemson University in South Carolina, where he qualified to wrestle in the heavyweight division at the 49th National Collegiate Athletic Association Championships at Ames, Iowa in 1979. Tanner later became a graduate- assistant football coach at Northwestern University in Chicago. He earned his medical doctorate from The Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C. and was a clinical radiologist in Des Moines, Iowa for 30 years. He is currently a practicing radiologist based in Murrieta, Fallbrook and Orange County.