logo
Oilers faithful Superfan Magoo hits TV screens on The Amazing Race Canada

Oilers faithful Superfan Magoo hits TV screens on The Amazing Race Canada

Yahoo08-07-2025
When Blair Gladue and his wife Skylene 'Nipîy' Gladue were asked to join this season's cast of The Amazing Race he had one big worry.
'I looked at the schedule and I was like, 'oh, no, you know what? If we do this, I'm going to miss the first two rounds of the Stanley Cup playoffs,'' says Gladue, known best in Oiler fandom and Edmonton at large as Superfan Magoo. 'Then, if we lost any of those first two rounds, it's going to be on me.'
Thankfully the Oilers made it past those two playoff encounters for Gladue, who runs Magoo Crew Entertainment when he isn't leading chants and beating on a drum at Rogers Place games. Gladue and his five associates host youth workshops across the country, focusing on hoop and traditional dancing, rapping and break dancing as they dispense their message about suicide awareness and anti-bullying. Gladue's wife Skylene is also an entertainer; she's unavailable for the interview due to prior commitments as part of the touring cast of Bear Grease, which is currently enjoying an Off-Broadway run at the Theater at St. Luke's in Manhattan.
With no way to check in on McDavid and crew from mid-April to mid-May, Gladue was forced to stay in the moment as he competed against 11 teams representing cities from across Canada. This year, five contestants were drawn from Alberta: Jesse Harink of Sherwood Park (teamed with Ontario's Jonathan Braun) plus Calgary brothers Osas and Esosa Igbinosun battling with the Gladues for provincial glory. Gladue, who says that he's watched a number of seasons in the past, admits that he wasn't quite prepared for what he and his wife went through.
'It was insane, amazing, and crazy,' says Gladue, 'Emotions were running wild, adrenaline was flowing. It's nothing like when you're watching it on TV. It's, in fact, 10 times harder than what you see on TV. This was a life-changing experience for sure.'
The reality show, which features teams in competition with each other across the country, kicks off Tuesday (July 8) at 9 p.m. MT on CTV, CTV.ca, and the CTV app, with streaming available the next day on Crave. Episodes after that run every Tuesday until the still-to-be-announced final entry. Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton was the starting point, but the competition sees the teams moving through Red Deer, Prince George, the Northwest Territories and beyond. The pace is hectic, the physical toll punishing.
That being said, Gladue insists that if anyone gets the opportunity to do it, they should snap it up immediately.
'But make sure, before you do it, that you do a lot of running and a lot of walking,' he cautions. 'Work out and eat well, because you're going to need all of that; it's not easy. I'm a high-energy guy, always moving, and my wife is the one who works out every morning, goes to the gym. But after the show, I'm like, 'You know what? Man, I need this.' I need to work out more, so I stretch and work out every morning, seven days a week.'
Gladue and his wife can't speak to anything that happened during their month-long competition, but Blair does speak fondly of the friends he made. We'll just have to keep up with episodes as they roll in to see who wins season 11, with its attendant prizes of two 2025 Chevrolet Blazer EV SS, a trip around the world, and a $250,000 cash prize. If the Gladues win it all, they promise to use some of that cash money for good, just as they promised at the very beginning to represent Indigenous people and the youth.
'Except that on our clothing, it said 'fer the youth,' not 'for the youth,'' he explains. 'That's youth slang. We're getting the message out there, representing our people, our community, you know, but also representing our Oiler fans!'
Whyte Avenue Art Walk celebrates 30 years: bigger, bolder than ever before
New Edmonton hot spot Bar Trove provided chef too good an opportunity to pass up
You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. Support us by subscribing today: The Edmonton Journal | The Edmonton Sun.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Getting A Start On Celebrating The Rangers 100th Anniversary
Getting A Start On Celebrating The Rangers 100th Anniversary

Yahoo

timean hour ago

  • Yahoo

Getting A Start On Celebrating The Rangers 100th Anniversary

You can't see it or hear about it just yet, but inside Madison Square Garden, the Rangers organization is busy planning for the club's gala 100th anniversary. At this very time a century ago the Garden -- that is the third Garden, not this one – was a year old and already had an NHL team, the New York Americans. Now, a century ago, Conn Smythe was given the job of building a Rangers roster. Now, you Blueshirt fans can get a jump on the MSG marketeers and learn all about the Original 1926-27 Blueshirts, their unusual creation, and the arresting characters that enabled New York to have its first Stanley Cup only a season (1927-28) later. The way to do so is get your hands on a copy of "The Last Original Ranger," a novel by Bryan Reilly. I've read it twice; and my buddy Bernie Rhode just finished his. Together, we are RAVING about it. While "The Last Original Ranger" is called "fiction," it is, but it also isn't. Author Reilly weaves his tale around Murray Murdoch, who made the Blueshirt varsity in 1926 along with the more famous Frank Boucher and the brothers Cook, Bill and Bun. With uncanny historic accuracy, Reilly captures the essence of training camp right into the regular season with both major and minor characters from that era exquisitely portrayed. (One such character really fooled The Maven.) There's also a keen mystery plot which Reilly cleverly disguised and which will be a challenge for any Rangers historian to unravel. J.T. Miller Has To Put Spirit Back Into The Blueshirts Not long after the Rangers packed their gear and went golfing, snorkeling or whatever elsehey do with their petty cash, Joe Micheletti said something not so petty about the team he'd left as an MSG Networks analyst. The beauty part is that Brother O'Reilly can write which makes the whole package a must read. Bottom Line: Reading "The Last Original Ranger," you'll get the feel that this 1926-27 team played only last night and you're reading about them in today's papers. Get a hold of this gem and you can boast that you're the first Ranger fan on your block to start celebrating the your team's 100th anniversary. (P.S. Check my other sidebar today for Bryan Reilly's assessment of the current Rangers. The man may be a novelist, but you'll find that he's also a realist.)

10 Thoughts: Roughriders made life difficult for Fajardo and the Elks
10 Thoughts: Roughriders made life difficult for Fajardo and the Elks

Yahoo

time7 hours ago

  • Yahoo

10 Thoughts: Roughriders made life difficult for Fajardo and the Elks

The Saskatchewan Roughriders are living up to expectations. Considered by many as one of the favourites to come out of the West Division in 2025, the Roughriders are off to a CFL-best 6-1 record through Week 8 of the season after a 21-18 win over the Edmonton Elks on Friday. And while the game was probably closed than the Roughriders would have liked in the end, Saskatchewan was able to close it out when it mattered thanks to a strong defensive performance. Here are the top 10 takeaways from the victory: 10 Thoughts: 1. Has there ever been a player that's had to wait two-plus seasons to face his former team in the CFL for the first time? That was the case for Elks' quarterback Cody Fajardo on Friday night, who started for Edmonton in place of the benched Tre Ford. After being shown the door by management following the 2022 season, Fajardo spent two years with the Montreal Alouettes but was injured every time they faced Saskatchewan. The 'Fajardo-return-to-Saskatchewan' finally happened on Friday night although it wasn't as spicy as it would have been if this was 2023. 2. Saskatchewan's defence made life miserable for Fajardo as he was sacked eight times. He took much of the blame for not getting the ball out sooner, but he still threw for 395 yards in the game and two touchdowns, including a 57-yarder to Kaion Julien-Grant, which followed a patented Fajardo spin-o-rama. Sounds like the Elks are sticking with him moving forward, which I think is a good decision. 3. The Roughriders defensive front had its best game of the year. Along with the eight sacks, the group allowed just five yards to Edmonton's two running backs. Saskatchewan's run defence hasn't been as good this year compared to previous years, but Friday's effort was worth noting even if the Elks abandoned the run when they trailed in the second half. 4. Sacks are the sexy stat, but sometimes quarterback pressure can paint a bigger picture. Defensive end Malik Carney, who was one of three Riders who had two sacks on Friday, sits second in the CFL with 25 quarterback pressures this year behind B.C.'s Mathieu Betts. Pressures are something that should be talked about more, along with pass knockdowns. 5. Friday's game not only featured two quarterbacks who replaced each other in the 2023 season — as Harris signed in Saskatchewan after playing in Montreal in 2022 — but it was also a matchup of the two quarterbacks with the highest completion percentage in CFL history. Entering the game, Fajardo ranked first all-time at 71.0 per cent while Harris was just behind him at 70.9 per cent. On Friday, Fajardo kept his all-time lead as he was 78.8 per cent in the game while 75.8 per cent. Harris also extended his CFL record to 10 straight games with a completion percentage over 70 per cent. 6. After being a special teams stalwart for his first three CFL seasons, Roughriders linebacker A.J. Allen is making the most of his opportunity now that he's getting a chance to start. Already with 29 tackles, one interception and one sack on the season, Allen added to his totals on Friday with five tackles, one special teams tackle and a sack for a loss of 18. He's also had a couple near interceptions this year and last week, he deflected a ball into the hands of teammate Marcus Sayles against the B.C. Lions. 7. Allen still plays lots of special teams but injuries to key special teamers Lake Korte-Moore and Aubrey Miller Jr. on Friday forced linebacker Jameer Thurman and Carney into the game on special teams. I know there are some starters who play a lot of special teams, but when you're pressed into it like that, it could be an issue. That wasn't the case for the Riders on Friday so props to them for making sure that 'next man up' mentality isn't limited to offence or defence. 8. In his second game filling in for the injured Mario Alford, rookie returner Drae McCray looked a little shaky early with a couple of drops on punt returns. However, none of them were costly as they didn't result in turnovers and he redeemed himself with a nice 42-yard return in the third quarter. After an impressive pre-season, many fans were excited to see what McCray could do and so far through two games, he's averaging 13.6 yards per return, which ranks fourth in the CFL among primary returners as he's just ahead of Alford who has a 12.1 yard average in five games. 9. Kicker Brett Lauther did not have a good start to the game as he missed a 47-yard field goal early on. However, like McCray he redeemed himself with a successful 51-yarder and 46-yarder later on. With Lauther kicked at a CFL-low 69.6 success rate, some fans want to see the Riders bring in competition. However, that might do more harm than good in a tight-knit locker room. We'll see. 10. There's also lots of talk about 'killer instinct.' If this were a team from the past, Saskatchewan would have found some weird way to lose that game by allowing a return, committing a turnover or some other strange play. Instead, after giving up a pair of touchdowns earlier in the fourth quarter, the defence was able to close it out with a pair of sacks on the final Edmonton drive, which followed a great punt by Joe Couch. This Corey-Mace led team is not going to be one of those teams. tshire@ Related Roughriders hold on for 21-18 victory over Elks on Friday Up Close: Meet Roughriders running back A.J. Ouellette The Regina Leader-Post has created an Afternoon Headlines newsletter that can be delivered daily to your inbox so you are up to date with the most vital news of the day. Click here to subscribe. With some online platforms blocking access to the journalism upon which you depend, our website is your destination for up-to-the-minute news, so make sure to bookmark and sign up for our newsletters so we can keep you informed. Click here to subscribe.

Chris Chelios, Rasheed Wallace and Claressa Shields top Michigan Sports Hall of Fame's 2025 class
Chris Chelios, Rasheed Wallace and Claressa Shields top Michigan Sports Hall of Fame's 2025 class

Washington Post

time11 hours ago

  • Washington Post

Chris Chelios, Rasheed Wallace and Claressa Shields top Michigan Sports Hall of Fame's 2025 class

DETROIT — Chris Chelios, Rasheed Wallace and Claressa Shields are among the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame's 2025 class of inductees. The hall of fame announced its 2025 class Friday night. Inductions are scheduled for Dec. 19 in Detroit. Hockey Hall of Fame member Chelios played defenseman for a decade, helping the Detroit Red Wings win two Stanley Cup Finals. Wallace helped the Detroit Pistons beat the Lakers for the 2004 NBA championship and reach four straight Eastern Conference finals.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store