Local hockey fans who check out the new DVD documentary "Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project" will find a bonus near the end — the Arizona Icecats coach.
The film shows Rickles performing stand-up and includes interviews with friends and admirers, including Chris Rock, Robert De Niro and Clint Eastwood. It was directed by John Landis, who was in Tucson last Saturday night.
Golembiewski, 58, says in the film that Pope John Paul II and Rickles are the two people he'd always wanted to meet.
While he's never met the pope, Golembiewski has been pals with the legendary insult comic since meeting him after a show in 2002.
Golembiewski is finishing his 29th year at the helm of the Icecats, a club hockey program he founded. The Illinois native coached the Icecats to a national championship in 1985 and was inducted into the Pima County Sports Hall of Fame in 1996. We caught up with him by phone:
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How did you meet Rickles?
"(My wife) Paula and I had a friend of ours buy tickets to see Don in 2002 in Reno. Paula and I flew up to Reno, obviously — I never go anywhere — and met Tony Oppedisano, his manager. He arranged for me to meet Mr. Rickles after the show that night. I gave him an Icecat hockey puck — he coined the 'hockey puck' thing."
So you hit it off immediately?
"During the show we were seated at that little front table there. He came out and said hi to me. He picked on Paula a little bit. He said 'Here's Coach G from the Arizona hockey team.' We went back and met him and (the relationship) has been pretty strong since. I see him two or three times a year in Vegas now. We've become pretty good friends."
It seems like you two have a similar sense of humor and personality.
"Yeah, I credit Don and point that out in a book I'm writing. He's written the introduction."
What is the book?
"It's about the real Coach G. (Local writer) Alan Petrillo is writing it with me. The working title is 'The American Dream: What the Hell Was I thinking?' When I came out here in '79, hockey was pretty, well, not dead, but not doing very well."
So you're pretty familiar with Rickles' act?
"I saw him in Scottsdale, at Casino Arizona. He picked on me right away. He talked about the documentary, and I got a card from Don saying, 'Dear coach: Nice seeing you and your lovely wife at the show. It's getting to the point where you could do my act without me being there.' "
How do you get ahold of him?
"Usually what I want to do is go through Tony O. It's a peer respect thing, not an intrusive relationship. Tony said to me one time, 'Outside his immediate circle, you see Don more than anybody.'
How did the filming go?
"I was thinking, 'You gotta be kidding me. A cameo at the end? Why in a film with Clint Eastwood would they put in a no one — coach Leo Golembiewski?' I did it fine the first time, but Landis said, 'You gotta do it again.' I was nervous on the second take and it was just terrible.'
Do you feel like a movie star now?
"It doesn't make me better to nobody, that's for darn sure."
If you're involved in filmmaking and would like to be featured in a Q&A, write to pvillarreal@azstarnet.com.
