Late last semester, Senior Scholar and Professor Emeritus Norm Gledhill, Faculty of Health Professors Roni Jamnik and Lauren Sergio welcomed CBC Television personality and York University honorary degree recipient Rick Mercer to the Human Performance Research and Teaching Laboratory in Norman Bethune College, along with graduate students, undergrads and York Lions athletes. Mercer's a Canadian comedian, television personality, political satirist and author.

They put Mercer through his paces and gave him a taste of the kind of grueling physical tests that National Hockey League (NHL) prospects face. Though he won’t be playing hockey at the elite level any time soon, Mercer gave it his all and left his York audience laughing.

Gledhill and Jamnik have been testing top hockey players since 1993 when they began working with NHL Central Scouting to establish NHL Combine testing. Sergio’s expertise was brought on board in 2004. The ongoing development of the testing has provided experiential learning opportunities for School of Kinesiology and Health Science undergraduate students enrolled in the Fitness Assessment and Exercise Counseling Certificate Program, as well as Masters of Fitness Science graduate students.

Watch below as Rick Mercer spends a day on York's Keele campus with the Faculty of Nursing and the team that developed the NHL’s fitness testing regimen.