OLD TOWN – For five weekends in February and March, the Old Town-Orono YMCA draws youngsters from throughout northern and central Maine to participate in the Bob Messier Basketball Tournament.

The tournament, now in its 20th year, celebrates the memory of one of the Y’s most active volunteers during the decades of the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s. Messier died from a heart attack in 1983 at age 61.

“Bob worked at the mill and volunteered at the Y,” recalled Tommy Thornton of Milford, a longtime YMCA supporter who spent many afternoons at the Y when he was growing up. That was when the Y was located downtown, on North Main Street across from the park.

“He pretty much ran the place,” Thornton said. “He ran most of the programs, took care of the pool table, filled the soda machines and got referees for basketball games. He used to take groups of kids out to his camp on Brandy Pond. He was a good guy – and good to kids.”

Joe Cyr of Old Town, owner of John T. Cyr & Sons and a member of the Y board for more than 30 years, remembers playing rec league basketball during the early 1950s, when Messier would referee practically every game.

Messier’s brother-in-law Bill Bradley of Old Town said Messier also was very active with the Boy Scouts, “but he loved the Y.”

A scholarship fund at the Y was established in Messier’s name in 1984, and in 1986, the Y sponsored the first Bob Messier Basketball Tournament. Since then, the tournament has expanded to five divisions, held on consecutive weekends, for fourth- and fifth-grade co-ed teams, sixth-grade-and-under boys and girls teams, and eighth-grade-and-under boys and girls teams.

The fourth- and fifth-grade tournament was held Feb. 25-26, with teams from the Old Town-Orono YMCA, Presque Isle, Camden and Veazie.

The sixth-grade-and-under girls played March 4-5, with teams from the Old Town-Orono YMCA, Camden, Gardiner, Levant and Mt. View.

The sixth-grade-and-under boys played March 11-12, with teams from the Old Town-Orono YMCA, Camden, Hampden, Presque Isle, Springfield and Brewer PAL.

The eighth-grade-and-under girls will play March 18-19, with teams from the Old Town-Orono YMCA, Hermon, Brewer, Calais, Lincoln, Newport and Tremont.

The eighth-grade-and-under boys will play March 25-26, with teams from the Old Town-Orono YMCA, the MDI YMCA, Presque Isle, Hermon, Calais, Etna-Dixmont, Veazie and the Bangor Y.