PASSION WRITTEN ALL OVER HIS FACE
Rabid Oilers fan grew up watching Gretzky and company on CBC
Oilers superfan Blair Gladue has his face painted in an Oilers-themed design by his sister Cora Gladue Thursday. The colourful Gladue is a common sight at Oilers home games. He says he’s been a rabid fan of the team since the 1980s glory days.
It was May 10, 2006.
Blair Gladue was sitting in row 10, directly behind the net inside Rexall Place during Game 3 of the NHL playoff series against San Jose.
The game had gone into tripleovertime when Shawn Horcoff scored on a wrap-around to send his team — and the capacity crowd — into raptures.
“I had a bag of popcorn and no word of a lie, who knows where it went and who cares,” Gladue recalled Thursday.
“It didn’t matter who you were, or where you were from, people were hugging, it was an amazing feeling.”
Gladue had always been an Oilers fan but that was the game that sealed his role as superfan.
For more than a decade, the now 43-year-old has made it his mission to attend every NHL home game in Edmonton decked out in
It didn’t matter who you were, or where you were from, people were hugging, it was an amazing feeling.
as much Oilers gear as humanly possible.
And thanks to his wife of two years, Skylene, who is also a rabid Oilers fan, his closet and home is now jam-packed with Oilers gear.
He’s also made it his mission to have his face painted by his sister at every home game. Cora Gladue, who is six years his junior, will spend up to 90 minutes perfecting the Oilers logo or a piece of face art of her own design.
“Up or down, my heart and soul is with the Oilers,” he said.
“I don’t know how to explain it. I have so much passion, so much love for this team. When we were losing for all those years, it was unimaginably tough.
“There were years when the season was over and I would cry.”
Raised by his grandparents in Colin Lake in far northern Alberta near the borders of Saskatchewan and Northwest Territories, Gladue moved to Edmonton when he was 12.
Growing up, he remembers watching legends like Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Jari Kurri, Glenn Anderson, Paul Coffey and Grant Fuhr on CBC.
When he couldn’t watch, he’d listen to the game being called on the radio.
And then came the glory years in the early 1980s.
“From there, it didn’t matter where I went or what I did, my passion was the Edmonton Oilers,” he said.
Rogers Place will be hosting another watch party on Friday for Game 2 of the second round of the Stanley Cup playoff series between the Edmonton Oilers and Anaheim Ducks.
All 18,000 seats for the Rogers Place watch party have sold out, but space is still available at Molson Hockey House and Ford Hall.