Hey sorry for the slow response, had to work which took me on the road and out of touch...
The Sprint Messenger program I'm referring to is from the actual original Sprint ROM. It bundles AIM, MS, and Yahoo IM in one place. Kinda nice... Sprint Lovers rom had this included. I'm not deep enough into it to know that much about the history.
Sorry to hear about the brick-age.
Thanks again for your work!