Sports News : Wednesday, November 17, 1999

by Tony Guadagnoli
Seattle Times sports staff

Leo Golembiewski remembers a time when he piled players in cars and drove two hours from Tucson to Phoenix to play a "home" game. He remembers wondering how he was going to pay for gas and credit-card bills, and out-of-pocket expenses far exceeded his income.

Now Golembiewski, the University of Arizona men's hockey coach, plays before crowds of 7,000, does a radio talk show and has turned a club team into the school's No. 3 source of sports revenue behind football and basketball.

Oh, the Icecats are not part of the University of Arizona's intercollegiate sports program, but they are one of the most popular games in town.

As the Washington men's club hockey team tries to build a program with little funding but big dreams, it has a blueprint to follow in Tucson.

If this "old goalie from Chicago," as Golembiewski refers to himself, can "do it here in the middle of the Sonoran desert with javelinas looking at you, you can do it anywhere," he said.

What he started in 1979 has become a model of club hockey in the United States. The Icecats have made 17 consecutive appearances in the American Collegiate Hockey Association Division I playoffs, eight in the Final Four, and won the 1985 national title.

They travel extensively, including trips to the East Coast, average more than 5,000 fans per game at the Tucson Convention Center, have all games broadcast on radio and reap benefits of several private sponsors. Golembiewski was honored by his mentor, Detroit Red Wing Coach Scotty Bowman, after his 300th victory.

"We just set out to make hockey here a competitive program nationally," Golembiewski said. "I'm sure everybody thought we were nuts. But we treated it as a national program, have had success and reaped the benefits. We're part of the community."

While the Icecats are a budding independent group, the Washington club team hopes it doesn't get left behind in the Pac-8 league (all Pac-10 teams except for the Arizona schools).

Zoe Harris, assistant coach for the UW club team, feels a Pac-10-sanctioned league is possible in 10 years. She and Coach Cindy Dayley were chosen co-vice presidents of the new ACHA Women's Division, which begins play in 2000-01.

And while women's hockey has become popular, adding four or five collegiate programs annually, the fight to have a Pac-10 league for men or women figures to be arduous.

Hockey, as a varsity sport, is not in the foreseeable future at the UW.

The last two sports the UW added were softball and women's soccer in 1990.

"We don't have any plans of adding or deleting any intercollegiate programs," said Marie Tuite, UW senior associate athletic director.

Tuite said that while the UW has a good record for gender equity, the climate for adding more men's sports nationally is not favorable.

Even Golembiewski, whose team is well-funded and gives Arizona 30 full-ride scholarships, admits becoming an intercollegiate sport is difficult.

"Having more male athletes in general at colleges makes it tough," he said. "We've grown by leaps and bounds, but there still are few rinks here. We have always gotten along well with the athletic department here, but we know what we can and cannot do."

Copyright © 1999 Seattle Times Company