A great Maine tradition — the annual high school basketball tournament — concludes on March 1 and 2 with 10 title games for girls and boys across five different classes to be contested in packed arenas in Bangor, Augusta, and Portland.

It’s a tourney, by the way, that �ֲ���ý founded 97 years ago.

In the winter of 1922, �ֲ���ý’ promotions-minded athletics director, Carl H. Smith, invited eight schoolboy teams to Lewiston to compete for the first statewide high school hoops title. (A girls’ tourney would have to wait until Title IX and the 1970s.)

Held March 10 and 11, the inaugural �ֲ���ý Interscholastic Basketball Tournament took place in the old auditorium of Lewiston City Hall, and the tournament teams were selected by Smith and the sports editors of Lewiston’s two daily newspapers, the Journal and the Daily Sun.

(In later years, as the tournament grew in importance, the selection committee would expand to comprise the �ֲ���ý AD and two coaches, plus sportswriters from Lewiston’s two daily papers and Portland’s three papers, the Press Herald, the Express, and the News.)

Scenes from the Portland-Deering game at the 1935 �ֲ���ý Interscholastic Basketball Tournament at the Lewiston Armory feature old fashioned granny shots and set shots, a very young Ed Muskie ’36, and a grumpy coach. Film courtesy of the Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library

A truly statewide event, the first tournament welcomed teams from way up north (Limestone, 230 miles away) and south (South Portland), teams from the east (Bangor, Eastport, Jonesport, and Northeast Harbor), and the west (Rumford and Bryant Pond).

In the final, “the largest crowd which ever witnessed a game in Lewiston” saw South Portland defeat Bangor, 24-22, to win what as the state’s first high school hoops title.

It was an upset, as the Daily Sun had promised readers that “Bangor should win the tournament hands down.” The winner earned the right to compete in a New England tournament at Tufts.

The debut of �ֲ���ý Interscholastic Basketball Tournament promised the winner the chance to represent Maine at a New England tournament at Tufts.

�ֲ���ý rolled out the garnet carpet for the visiting teams, putting them up in �ֲ���ý residence halls, including Roger Williams and Parker, and provided meals in the men’s Commons, then in John Bertram Hall.

“Let’s not fail to extend the �ֲ���ý spirit of hospitality to these athletes,” The �ֲ���ý Student requested in its editorial on March 10. The tourney “is a unique thing among the colleges of Maine,” offering an “unusual privilege to greet such a group of high school representatives to �ֲ���ý.”

Led by the Varsity Club, dozens of �ֲ���ý students helped out at the inaugural and subsequent tournaments, handling everything from a press table and crowd control at City Hall to housing and meals on campus.

In 1926, the Deering High School boys team was one of eight to compete in the �ֲ���ý Interscholastic Basketball Tournament, the regional championship of western Maine. (Collections of Maine Historical Society/MaineToday Media)

In 1922, basketball was still a new sport — �ֲ���ý itself had just started its varsity team in 1920 — and the local papers’ coverage reflected that. Along with tourney coverage, The Lewiston Daily Sun (now the Sun Journal) offered a column of “Basketball Facts Worth Remembering” in Q-and-A format.

A few questions focused on the quirky nature of the City Hall court, where rafters and balconies loomed large. “A player out of bounds makes an honest effort to throw the fall into court,” wrote one reader. “Ball strikes a rafter and bounds into basket. Does the goal count?”

Answer: “No.”

Indeed, the paper said that the otherwise excellent court “could be perfected entirely by placing the north goal somewhat farther from the balcony.” The auditorium, which also hosted popular boxing matches throughout the middle 1900s, is now space for city offices.

�ֲ���ý tournament founder Carl Smith knew what he was doing with the hoops tourney, having already organized similar high school tournaments in track and tennis at �ֲ���ý, with the goal of “bringing the pick of the local schools to our campus.”

Something similar was happening on the academic side in the early 1900s, as well, with the �ֲ���ý Interscholastic Debating League, a state forensics competition that doubled as a recruiting venture.

Carl H. Smith was the promotions-minded �ֲ���ý director of athletics who created Maine’s first statewide high school basketball tournament.

And Smith was a media darling. As the Daily Sun said about Smith, “He has proven valuable not only as a coach but as a publicity man for the college” with “readiness to assist in reporting events connected with the college.” The paper also praised Smith for being “a consistent worker for clean sport.”

After 1922, the University of Maine debuted a tournament for eastern Maine schools, with �ֲ���ý continuing to offer its tournament for the west. (The two regions were called “the �ֲ���ý League” and the “Maine League.)

By the mid-1920s, the �ֲ���ý tournament was firmly established as the regional championship for western Maine schools.

Within a few years, the two regional winners were playing for the state title, with the site alternating between Lewiston and Orono. (Today’s tournament is also regional, except by north and south.)

In 1929, the �ֲ���ý tournament moved from City Hall to �ֲ���ý’ new Alumni Gym, and then, in 1931, to the Lewiston Armory. In 1936, the Maine Principals Association, which had oversight of the state game, also took over the regional tournaments.

Both the inaugural and subsequent �ֲ���ý Interscholastic Basketball Tournaments drew massive press coverage (as does today’s tournament, with this weekend’s finals being ).

After the first tournament, the Student noted that “everyone hopes that this tournament will be a fixed feature of the winter sports.”

Well, truth be told.

Hoping to erase steak-sauce stains from a seersucker suit, we headed over to Alumni Gymnasium, where we’d heard there was bleach work going on.

Turns out that we heard wrong (again!). It was bleacher work — the removal, in fact, of the hard-pine bleachers that have put generations of Bobcat boosters’ bottoms good and close to the basketball and volleyball action. So close, in fact, that the gym has gained a certain reputation as an intimidating venue for Bobcat opponents.

A section of Alumni Gym bleachers on March 30, 2018, a few days before their removal. In the foreground is the “split B” athletics emblem. (Theophil Syslo/�ֲ���ý College)

We stopped in on Monday, April 2, as Jim Libbey and his two-man crew were just finding their rhythm in the repetitious work of unbolting the bleachers’ planks, metal supporting frames, and other hardware, and toting it all out back.

And the shiny maple floor will be next to go, scheduled for removal starting April 18.

We wondered about the age of the bleachers. Libbey’s team didn’t have a figure at hand, but Ben Bedell did point out that they were encountering many square nuts, which were commonly used until the mid-20th century. They were supplanted by the hexagonal nuts prevalent now, which enable more frequent and therefore easier turns with the wrench.

(Later research suggested that most of the bleachers were installed as replacements in 1956 — although one section, dark with age, or steak sauce, may have been original to the 1926 gym.)

Nick Dye of J.M. Libbey & Sons carries a pine board away from the Alumni Gym bleachers on April 2, 2018. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Be that as it may, nostalgia didn’t slow anyone down and the bleachers were gone before the end of the week. With replacement bleachers and floor expected to be in place by mid-June, it’s all part of a renovation project that will leave the 92-year-old gym ready for plenty more Bobcat excitement.

The condition of the floor was the prime mover for the project, says project manager Shelby Burgau, who joined Facility Services’ Capital Planning and Construction group last September. Over the course of periodic refinishing jobs, the maple had been sanded down nearly to the point of exposing the tongue-and-groove joints holding the planks together.

“We really couldn’t get away with sanding it down again,” Burgau says.

Ben Bedell, Jim Libbey, and Nick Dye of J.M. Libbey & Sons are shown taking the Alumni Gym bleachers apart on April 2, 2018. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Replacing the floor, adds Director of Athletics Jason Fein, gives �ֲ���ý not only a brand-new, state-of-the-art playing surface, but a showcase for current branding. Notably, the urbane Bobcat mascot image introduced in 2013 will take pride of place at center court, now occupied by the so-called split B. Logos for the NCAA and NESCAC will be also be added to the layout.

“It will look a lot better at the end of the day,” Burgau says. The new floor will again be maple, and New England Sports Floors of Lowell, Mass., is the subcontractor.

Of course, before anything could be done with the floor, the bleachers had to go away. Like the old set, the new ones will be retractable to embiggen the floor space between games — but henceforth motors will do that work, instead of muscles.

“The current bleachers are not only old, but it’s pretty labor-intensive to pull them in and out,” Burgau says. Hussey Seating Company of North Berwick, Maine, is fabricating the bleachers, and Robert H. Lord Co. of Manchester, Conn., is the subcontractor supervising the installation to be executed by J.M. Libbey and Sons.

Taking advantage of all the newly unobstructed space, a spate of mechanical and electrical work is being sandwiched between bleacher demolition last week and floor removal next week. Damon Mechanical Services of Auburn, a familiar name in these updates, is relocating heating-system pipes along the walls where the bleachers used to be.

Another local subcontractor, Mountain View Electric of Sabattus, is running new power lines for the bleacher motors and the new scorer’s table. That latter feature, Fein points, out, will sport a digital LED signboard across the front “allowing us to program it with customized messages, and bringing us in line with other current facilities.”

(But like the cloth �ֲ���ý banner draped on the old scorer’s table, the LED panel will continue to perform the vital function of concealing the scorers’ lower extremities, so they can still take off their shoes, wiggle their toes, and roll their trouser cuffs up and down during long games.)

Aside from a few stacks of planks sitting around, the Alumni Gym bleachers were history by April 5. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

According to the schedule, the floor work should take about a month, wrapping up the week of May 14, says Burgau. “After the floor is complete, we’ll take a little pause for graduation, in case the gym needs to be used as a rain backup” — in which case it serves as a robing and assembly area for the faculty and graduates, with the actual ceremony across the street in Merrill Gym.

And then, hard on the heels of Commencement, bleacher installation should begin the week of May 29. Burgau adds that, to expand the gym’s capacity, the Alumni Gym stage will sport permanent bleachers for the first time. Those too will feature power retraction.

“Then we have just the final wrap-up, installing equipment like the scorer’s table,” she says. “Come June 18, the gym will be turned back over to the coaches” for summer camps, and to the �ֲ���ý Dance Festival for rehearsals.

Can we talk? Campus Construction Update welcomes your questions and comments about current, past, and future construction at �ֲ���ý. Write to dhubley@bates.edu, putting “Campus Construction” or “Is anyone still wearing seersucker?” in the subject line.

The design of the forthcoming Alumni Gym floor. (New England Sports Floors)

For a college coach like Jon Furbush ’05, saying goodbye to talented seniors is a coaching reality.

Still, “it’s always a fun adjustment,” says the men’s basketball coach. “You miss the old ones but you really appreciate the new ones.”

Fans can watch two key “new ones” at 7 tonight as the Bobcats kick off their NESCAC schedule .

Juniors Nick Lynch of Westford, Mass., and Brandon Galloway of Fort Washington, Md., have taken over the low-post defensive duties once handled by twin brothers Malcolm Delpeche and Marcus Delpeche, standouts who graduated last spring and now play professionally in Germany.

A six-foot-seven center, Lynch is a traditional big man. Galloway is shorter (“Six-two on a good day”) yet effectively guards players a half-foot taller with strength, grit, and what Furbush calls “ridiculous hands.”

Together, says their coach, the pair are “really bringing it.”

Lynch and Galloway forged a strong friendship last year as they worked to overcome injury. “We basically became best friends,” Lynch says. “The rehab process is not easy and we really pushed each other to get back on the court.”

It might be time to double down on the men’s basketball team’s chances this winter.

Identical twin brothers and seniors and of Wilmington, Del., team leaders in scoring and rebounding, have led the Bobcats to a 9-3 record as conference play starts tonight, Jan. 6, at Colby.

After making the Sweet 16 their sophomore year, 2015-16 was a letdown, says Malcolm Delpeche. “So we really want to come back and put our best foot forward this season.”

With 4:34 remaining in the first half of the men’s basketball game vs. Bowdoin on Jan. 23, 2009, Neil Creahan ’10 of Hingham, Mass., drives between Bowdoin defenders and dishes to Jimmy O’Keefe ’10 (not pictured) of Lexington, Mass., for the layup. “The play was for Neil to go one-on-one, to let him operate,” explains head coach Jon Furbush ’05. Creahan picks up the story: “I beat my man, then was met by the second line of defense. With two guys on me, I found O’Keefe on the basket.” The Bobcats won, 57–54, giving Furbush his initial NESCAC coaching victory before a rambunctious home crowd in Alumni Gym.

Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen

Women’s basketball teammates converge after the final buzzer reveals the Bobcats as 73-71 winners over rival Colby in a fiercely contested Jan. 13 Alumni gymnasium contest.

The team finished the regular season with a 62-51 loss at No. 18 nationally ranked Tufts University on Feb. 14 at Cousens Gymnasium.The Bobcats finish 16-8 overall and 5-4 in the conference, and earn the fourth seed in next weekend’s NESCAC Championship. �ֲ���ý will host fifth-seeded Trinity College (16-7, 4-5 NESCAC) at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 21, in the tournament quarterfinals.

Read the latest news on the �ֲ���ý Women’s Basketball team.

Neil Creahan ’10 drives and dishes to Jimmy O’Keefe for a layup in the first half of the men’s basketball team’s 57-54 NESCAC victory over Bowdoin College on Jan. 23. After defeating NESCAC rival Tufts 77-65 on Feb. 14, �ֲ���ý finishes the regular season at 13-11 overall and 4-5 in conference play. The Bobcats have earned the sixth seed in the NESCAC Championship and will play at No. 3 seed Williams (16-7, 6-2) Saturday, Feb. 21, at 3 p.m. in the conference playoff quarterfinals.

Read the latest news on the �ֲ���ý Men’s basketball team.

�ֲ���ý junior Chris Wilson (Brewer, Maine) averaged 19.5 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists per game in leading �ֲ���ý to a 54-53 win over Trinity and a narrow 71-66 loss to nationally ranked Amherst. He shot 13-for-25 from the field (.520) on the week, including 6-of-8 (.750) from behind the three-point arc.

In the Amherst game, Wilson scored a career-high 24 points on 8-of-12 shooting, including 4-of-5 on threes, to go with 7 assists and 4 rebounds. He followed that up with 15 points and 4 rebounds in the crucial victory over Trinity. He was honored as Player of the Week for his efforts by the Maine Men’s Basketball Coaches and Writers Association.

Wilson averages a team-high 12.0 points per game and leads the NESCAC in free throw shooting (.903) while ranking fourth in assists per game (4.45 apg). In conference games he is ranked 10th in the NESCAC in scoring (13.8 ppg), second in assists (4.38 apg) and 10th in three-point accuracy (.455).

Wilson and the Bobcats (12-10, 3-5 NESCAC) play their final non-conference game on Thursday night at Gordon College, then wrap up the regular season with a home date against Tufts on Saturday at 3 p.m., where they’ll look to improve their chances for a spot in the eight-team field of the NESCAC Championships. �ֲ���ý still has an outside chance of landing the fourth seed and a home playoff game.