Kibbe,
Writing sports copy in high school must have been the coolest thing for a kid who enjoys sports.
Sorry to hear about what you had to deal with. One of the prevailing things about Stamford from when it was a factory town from the late 1800's through to the 1950's was that different backgrounds populated different neighborhoods and you could tell by the churches/synagogues, etc if it was an Irish, Italian, Jewish, Polish neighborhood. During the 1960's when I was growing up and the factories had moved out was when people started to move and neighborhoods (slowly) started becoming more diverse. The overall mood of the 1960's also helped but it did take some time (and sadly there are still far too many closed minded at-hats out there).
On the stories in that book, unfortunately I knew of nearly all of them (and the rumored major players in each) long before the book was published.
By the way, if you have any interest in attending a football game this fall let me know.