“Dancing Gabe” arrives to fanfare in Calgary ahead of Grey Cup

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This article was published 22/11/2019 (2154 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

CALGARY — Gabe Langlois walked, with no dance steps, into a banquet hall at the Calgary Stampede grounds Friday morning.

For at least a few minutes, a saunter was good enough: Langlois was saving his patented moves for a performance inside, and, of course, for the big dance Sunday: the 107th Grey Cup.

The man who’s known by thousands as “Dancing Gabe” left Winnipeg around sunrise. At the airport, he was met with the usual attention that comes with being the city’s most famous sports fan, if not most one of its most famous citizens.

Upon arrival in Calgary, Langlois — who has brought his dance stylings to Winnipeg professional sports games for more than 30 years — was afforded a little bit of anonymity. That is, until he and his sister, Claudette, set foot on the Stampede grounds for the Touchdown Manitoba party.

“Gabe! Gabe! Gabe!,” a crowd began chanting, and Langlois started beaming: now, the party could truly start.

Langlois, 56, was greeted with handshakes and high-fives, fist-bumps and a seemingly endless stream of selfies. He handled the attention like the seasoned celebrity he is, always making the time to say hello.

“It’s my seventh Grey Cup, but my first trip in 12 years,” Langlois told the Free Press.

The last time was the 2007 Grey Cup, when the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, led by backup quarterback Ryan Dinwiddie, lost to the Saskatchewan Roughriders 23-19 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto.

“I was heartbroken,” he said.

Langlois didn’t make the trip to see the Bombers play in their most recent CFL title game: in 2011, at Vancouver’s BC Place Stadium. Winnipeg lost that battle, too, by a score of 34-23.

So when the Bombers punched their ticket to the 2019 Grey Cup by dispatching the Roughriders in Regina last week, Langlois hoped he’d get his chance to take his show on the road.

It took a few days, but the Bombers announced Thursday they’d be sending him (and Claudette) to Calgary to cheer the team on against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

“It was just fantastic,” Langlois said of finding out he’d be packing his bags. “And Calgary is a city that knows how to put on a show” — something one of Winnipeg’s definitive showmen can appreciate.

Inside the party, Langlois brought his signature moves to the dance floor. Though most of the room was decked in blue and gold, even the fans from other CFL teams knew who he was. “You can’t not know him,” said one man wearing a Ticats hat.

But, of course, the party Friday was only a prelude to Sunday, and that’s what Langlois and others in the room were looking forward to most.

Asked if Winnipeg’s result would be better this time than in 2007 or 2011, or any Grey Cup the Bombers have played in since their last victory (1990), Langlois was confident.

“Oh yeah,” he said. “It’s going to be a defensive battle, and I see the Bombers winning by three points.”

If that happens, for the first time in nearly 30 years, the city of Winnipeg will be dancing — not just “Dancing Gabe” Langlois.

ben.waldman@freepress.mb.ca