‘Milt, Wake up!’: An April Fool’s Prank To Remember
Reliving the Night of the Infamous New York Knicks Prank That Inspired My Mom and Me to Pull a Prank of Our Own on My Grandparents.
On April 1, 1997, the New York Knicks pulled off one of my favorite April Fool’s Day pranks.
As the Knicks geared up for a playoff push, the team was looking to improve their roster. As viewers like my family and I tuned in, we learned that backup Point Guard Scott Brooks had been cut from the team, making room to sign Knicks legend and color commentary analyst Walt “Clyde” Frazier, who hadn’t played professional basketball in 17 years.
Shocked doesn’t begin to describe how the viewers felt.
Did we know it was April Fool’s Day? Probably, but the Knicks did their best to fool their audience. Hall of Fame announcer Marv Albert made the announcement while the telecast filmed footage of Frazier warming up before the game. They even had b-role film of this man running on a treadmill!
To further prank their audience, they interviewed the Knicks President and General Manager, Trainer, Head Coach, the Assistant Coach, Mike Fratello, who was the Head Coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers (their opponent that evening), and even Scott Brooks, who appeared to be genuinely upset by the news, calling it “garbage.”
Ultimately, we discovered this was an elaborate April Fool’s Day prank, instantly becoming one of my favorite pranks. Though hours later, my mom and I would pull off what became my all-time favorite prank on my unsuspecting Grandparents.
“You just won a new car!”
Have you ever received an email like this? Someone out of the blue contacts you to say you just won a new car, a free vacation, or something similar. In the 90s, you’d receive this information by the home phone with someone calling you to offer a life-changing prize in exchange for answering their questions.
My Grandparents lived next door. Literally, we lived in townhomes, and the home attached to ours was theirs. Naturally, this made us close.
If it was 7:30 pm and my Grandparents were awake, that was considered a late night, so catching the end of Knicks games was a rarity for them. Following the Knicks' 94–88 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers, inspired by Walt Frazier, my mom got an idea.
“Do you want to prank Grandma and Grandpa?”
Of course, my answer was, “yes!”
Putting the phone on speaker, my mom dialed their number, knowing they were asleep. Three rings in, Grandma answered.
“(Clears throat) Hello?”
My mom did her best radio impression, disguising her voice in a way I don’t think I had heard before.
“Hello there, Dorothy! This is radio station 101.7 WENU, and you are the lucky winner of our brand-new car sweepstakes!”
“Who is this?”
“Radio station 101.7! Now, are you ready to win a brand new car?!”
“Yeah, okay, sure!”
She was in. I mean, we clearly woke her up, and maybe she was still half asleep, but Grandma was in.
“Okay, Dorothy. We’re going to give you twenty seconds, and to win a brand new car, all you have to do is answer one question…”
“Okay, I’m ready for the question.”
“For your new car, can you tell me the final score of tonight's Knicks and Cavaliers game? Your twenty seconds start now…”
I didn’t completely know what my mom was going to say, but wow this was good. Her voice was spot on, and while she smiled through her questions, at no point did she let on that this was a prank. I felt like she’d had some practice pulling pranks before.
“Oh no. Umm, oh boy, I don’t know. Uh, Milt! Milt, wake up! What was the score of the Knicks game?”
My Grandpa chimes in.
“(Clearly groggy) Um, what?”
“WHAT WAS THE SCORE OF THE KNICKS GAME? WE COULD WIN A NEW CAR IF WE TELL THIS PERSON ON THE PHONE!”
I’m dying. My mom and I now have tears falling down our faces as my sleepy Grandparents scramble to remember the score of a game they clearly didn’t finish.
“Uh, uh, I don’t know! Who is that?”
“IT’S THE RADIO, MILT! IT’S THE RADIO PEOPLE!”
My mom hits her with the time clock.
“Ten seconds left, Dorothy…”
“Uhhhh, oh no, oh no, what was the score? MILT, TURN ON THE TV!”
“WHERE’S THE REMOTE, DOROTHY?! I CAN’T FIND IT!”
5… 4… 3… 2… 1…
As time ran out, Grandma gave up.
“Oh, I don’t know the score. I fell asleep!”
“Ohhhh, the game's final score tonight was Knicks 94 and the Cleveland Cavaliers 88. If only you wouldn’t have fallen asleep, then you would have won a brand-new car! Well, thanks for playing, and better luck next time. Goodbye!”
My mom slammed down the phone, and we both laughed harder than anything we had ever experienced. Our stomachs were in pain from holding in our laughter for the duration of the call.
Imagining my Grandparents waking up from deep sleep to try to win a car was already hilarious, but listening to them fumble around searching for the remote was the cherry on top of the evening.
My mom and I immediately ran next door to see the aftermath.
“Did you see the end of that Knicks game?” my mom asked as if it was an all-time classic ending.
Clearly rustled from her loss, Grandma responded, “No, and if I knew, I would have won a brand new car!”
We could have kept it going, but we simply couldn’t. Our bodies wouldn’t allow it. My mom and I were hysterical, with my Grandma responding, “What’s so funny?”
“That was us calling! We were the radio station pretending to give you a new car if you knew the game's final score! April Fool’s!”
My Grandma was a great sport, immediately smiling at the absurdity of the final three minutes of her life.
“You jerks!” she let out, laughing with us now. Then Grandpa came out of his room.
“Dorothy, what’s happening out here?”
“That was Jean and Ryan who called, offering us a brand new car!”
“Wait… so there’s no new car?”
Years after my Grandparents passing, we still get a kick out of this story. The light-hearted craziness epitomized our relationship, making memories with the people you love while never taking life too seriously.
A few weeks back, my daughter asked my mom to share a story about Grandma and Grandpa that she’d never heard. She pulled out this classic April Fool’s Day story, thoroughly amusing my daughter.
When I picked her up that afternoon, she said, “Dad! We need to pull that same prank on Grandma like you and Grandma pulled on GG and Great Grandpa!”
I don’t think we’ll try the exact same prank this year, but we’ll keep the family April Fool’s tradition going somehow.