Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 1, 1993 TAG: 9302010069
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
THEY WERE PIGGING OUT ON FOOTBALL
While the Buffalo Bills and Dallas Cowboys were the featured attractions in Super Bowl XXVII, the star of the First Church of God's Super Bowl party was a hog.Heiney, an 85-pound pot-bellied porker, crashed the party shortly after the largely anti-Dallas crowd settled into their seats for the annual anointment of the kings of pro football.
"I think he's rooting for the Bills," said Pete LeFleche, one of his owners. "He'll root for anyone who feeds him."
Annette LeFleche, Heiney's other owner, said his loyalties go deeper than his last meal.
She said Heiney, a native of Austin, Texas, was leaning toward the Cowboys.
She pointed to his harness, which was colored with the royal blue of Dallas.
"I put the harness on him," Annette LeFleche said. "I get to say who he's for."
Actually, Heiney was leaning more toward the pizza, subs, and popcorn that had been prepared for the party by the church's youth group.
"He's in his glory with all this food," Pete LeFleche said.
Heiney was particularly partial to the popcorn, which he has learned to love at home.
"He can be asleep and if it's cooking in the microwave, he grunts and howls," Pete LeFleche said.
Like former President Bush, the only thing Heiney has crossed off his menu is broccoli.
Heiney really didn't care much for the football on Sunday. He gave up rooting this year when the Washington Redskins and their "Hogs" got knocked out of the playoffs.
That didn't deter Jack Campbell, who came to the party dressed in his Redskins jacket and hat. Campbell even tried to hog the spotlight from Heiney by bringing his own pig snout to the party.
"I don't really care who wins as long as Dallas loses," Campbell said. "The Redskins are the best team in the league. You don't think I'd dress like this if they weren't."
The Rev. Jim Milner, the church's minister, had an ulterior motive for setting up a Super Bowl party on Sunday night.
In his six years at the church, the attendance at evening services on Super Bowl Sunday is about half the usual number. Sunday night, about 100 people showed up, many more than for a normal evening service.
Halftime entertainment was a video of former Dallas Coach Tom Landry and players from the Bills and Cowboys witnessing for Christ.
"I think they're more Bills fans," Milner observed of the crowd. "It seems the ones for Dallas are really for Dallas. The others seem they are for anyone but Dallas."
One of the diehard Dallas fans was 2 1/2-month-old Nathan Hartman, who was dressed in Cowboys' pajamas.
"It's a family event," said Stephanie Hartman, his mother.