The volume of e-mails in my in-box tends to dip considerably during the summer months, but that's not why the one I received recently from Nancy Wiebe -- whose husband Roger, the former Madison West coach and athletic director, was a recent Madison Sports Hall of Fame inductee -- stood out.

Nancy wanted to know the the final win-loss record for longtime Regents boys basketball coach Jim Stevens.  Roger Wiebe played for and, later, coached under Stevens for the final years of his 38-year career at West before replacing him after Stevens retired. (The gymnasium at West is now named for Stevens.)

Nancy explained that she and her husband were making an 11th-hour attempt to order a brick in Stevens' memory for the walk leading up to the new Ash Street entrance being restored at the high school. They were looking to incude Stevens' final coaching record -- 523-296 -- on the brick.

Well, I heard back from Nancy early last week and she was proud to say that they were able to get a brick for both Jim Stevens and his wife Kathy, the longtime chairman of the physical education department at West. Better yet, the Wiebes were able to secure enough financial support to but each the 8x8-inch brinks rather than the 4x8 size.

"We got 25 donors at $20 each for $500 -- all in about four days," Nancy Wiebe wrote. "Isn't that cool?"

Cool indeed.

 I'm sure there will be many familiar names on the the Madison West version of what is sure to resemble a "Walk of Fame." But few bricks will have more history than the deserving bricks for Jim and Kathy Stevens, who were married for 32 years before Kathy died Aug. 20, 2006, and Jim passed away Dec. 28 of that same year.