St. Louis Blues head coach Jim Montgomery reflected on his time with the team as a player. Montgomery detailed a wild April Fools’ prank his former teammates played on him. He told former teammates Brett Hull and Kelly Chase that the prank is still unforgettable.
Montgomery, 57, played for the Blues during the 1993-94 NHL season. St. Louis had a talented young roster led by Brett Hull, Brendan Shanahan, and Craig Janney. The Blues also had a lot of toughness with the likes of Kelly Chase and Basil McRae.
Now, 32 years later, Montgomery still remembers the April Fools’ prank that was played on him and finds joy in it.
Blues Head Coach Jim Montgomery Details Wild April Fools’ Prank
Blues head coach Jim Montgomery recalled teammate Kelly Chase being the mastermind of the April Fools’ prank. Montgomery detailed the prank and revealed it was centered around the Super Bowl months prior.
“It was a week or two before April Fools’ Day and I walked into the rink that day. And someone comes in and says, ‘Hey, the coaches want to see you.’ It’s not very often they want to talk to a fourth line player. So I walk in and Bob Barry was part of it and he’s like, ‘Did you get in some trouble a couple months ago, Super Bowl Sunday?’ I’m like, ‘No.’ He goes, ‘How many beers did you have?’ I said, ‘I don’t know. Four.’ And then, they’re like, ‘Well, there’s some policemen here that want to talk to you about that evening,'” Montgomery told Ice Guardians Podcast.
“I walk in and they’re actually pushing Bret Hedican and Jim Hrivnak around, ‘Don’t lie to me. We know you guys know.’ And it’s an interrogation room and all this is on camera, so the whole team watched it later. I sit down and they’re asking me all these questions,” he said. “[The owner was there], and then players are coming up to me. Everybody knows about it and they’re like, ‘Hey, what’s wrong with you?'”
Montgomery described his hilarious reaction and sigh of relief after finding out it was a prank.
“They played the practical joke and said, ‘It’s April Fools’ early.’ And I jumped around and celebrated.”
Kelly Chase and Brett Hull Recalls Montgomery’s Reaction to the Prank
Kelly Chase recalled the reaction among his Blues teammates when Montgomery was being pranked. Chase revealed he was waiting for another teammate to say something before admitting it, which took longer than he thought.
The former Blues enforcer detailed Montgomery’s reaction and said it was hard to contain his laughter.
“I remember sitting with my head down going, ‘At what point will somebody laugh or say something?’ Because I can’t be the first. And then nobody did. So I just said, ‘Well, we’re going to play around with it,'” Chase said on his Ice Guardians Podcast. “[Then somebody said], ‘James Peter Montgomery, you’ve been had.’ And the guys were all laughing and the cops were laughing, and then when everybody started laughing, you were like, ‘Oh my God.’ You were just jumping around.”
Brett Hull also chimed in and described Montgomery’s relief that he was not actually facing charged.
“It’s unbelievable. The relief on you was just like, ‘Oh.'”
Blues Head Coach Details Wild April Fools’ Prank by Ex-Teammates