By Mike Jagassar
YouTube and Sportsnet personality Steve “Dangle” Glynn, a former Ryerson RTA grad, spoke to students on Monday about hockey and making it in the sport media industry.
Dangle hosted a book signing and Q&A. The event was planned by the Ryerson Communication and Design Society (RCDS) who invited him to promote his new book, This Team Is Ruining My Life (But I Love Them): How I Became a Professional Hockey Fan.
“Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d ever write a book and promote it in the same building where I was put on academic probation twice,” said Dangle.
For the past 13 years, Dangle has grown a following of over 116,000 subscribers and has over 32 million views on YouTube for his ever-popular “Leafs Fan Reaction” videos, where he reacts to every single Toronto Maple Leafs game and any team news.
In his new book that was published in March 2019, Dangle chronicles his unconventional path that started as an idea at 19-years-old—to videotape his reaction to every Leafs game. In addition, the book details his short-term positions and internships that eventually led to him landing his current role at Sportsnet and his status as a voice for Leafs fans.
Up until this past week, he hadn’t missed a game or video in over six years. Apart from YouTube, he’s currently a content contributor and podcast host for Rogers Sportsnet.
“Busy, unpredictable, but fun is how I would describe it,” said Dangle. “There’s no set game plan for the day, whether I’m working from home or downtown, there’s always something different every day, and I love it.”
Dangle gave his advice about breaking into the world of sport media while explaining how lucky you have to be to get your foot in the door.
Event organizer and current RCDS president Duaa Zahra explained that the RCDS had been trying to organize an event with Dangle for a while, but schedule conflicts had prevented that from happening until now.
“Steve’s a really busy guy,” said Zahra. “He announced that he wanted to do another book signing tour, so I tweeted out to him and sure enough, he said yes and we made it happen.”
Throughout the two-hour long Q&A, Dangle spoke about getting creative in order to be able to hold down a position in an ever-changing industry—and using the resources you have at your disposal.
“Take advantage of everything you have here,” said Dangle, reflecting on his time at Ryerson. “It’s crazy that there’s a sport media program here now, when I was here ten years ago, there was only one sports course!”
When Dangle looks back at his time at Ryerson, he thinks of the friendships he made and the difficulties he had when it came to working with a camera.
Now, his life revolves around cameras and editing as he’s found a way to make a living through filming out of his basement studio, which is completely decked out with Leafs memorabilia and gear.
“In the end, you have to put in a lot of work, but you have to remember to have fun too,” said Dangle. “You have to remember to be creative, but not get too bogged down, or you’ll implode.”
Dangle will continue his book signing tour as he travels to Waterloo, Peterborough and Guelph among other places for the rest of February until early April.
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