FORNEY - At 3 p.m. Saturday, Forney, Tex., became a ghost town.

There was no rattle of dominos on the old timers' table down at the fruit stand. The cash register at the feed and seed store stood strangely silent. And not even a stray cat crossed the deserted main street of this small Kaufman County farm town.

At "Jackrabbit Headquarters" Bob Futrell hung a padlock on the door and surveyed the scene.

"It's a pretty lonely looking place," he observed.

The reason for it all, strangely enough, was a football game 200 miles away in Austin. That is where Forney's beloved Jackrabbits played Sonora in the Class A state semifinals Saturday night - and that is where the mass exodus of Forney citizens converged.

At his downtown supermarket, owner Richard Cunningham, scurried through an inventory of the frozen foods section. There was not a customer in the place.

He continued to work as he talked.

"Trying to finish up so I can close the place," he explained. "I'll just about have time to make it down there for the game."

Forney is a town of some 2,000 souls located off Interstate 20 just across the Kaufman County line. It is a farm town and normally on Saturday its streets bustle with rural once-a-week shoppers.

And the Forney Jackrabbit football team has caused excitement here before - but never anything to resemble the mania which has captured the town this season.

Actually, it began a year ago when the Jackrabbits compiled a 11-1 record. This year they entered the Sonora contest with a perfect 12-0 slate.

"You can't imagine how everybody here loves this football team," said Futrell where a large sign identifies his drug store as Jackrabbit headquarters. "The old folks, the young folks - everybody."

The team left for Austin Friday. Saturday morning, a giant pep rally was held at the high school - "and kind of carried over to downtown," according to Cunningham.

Cheering and shouting, fans boarded chartered buses and climbed into cars decorated by signs proclaiming "We're No. 1."

A Kaufman County sheriff's deputy, his patrol car siren screaming at full pitch, led the caravan out of town.

Roughly lettered posters stared out from dark show windows, urging "Go Big Rabbits" and "Wallop Sonora."

And then there was the one apparently drawn by the town's most enthusiastic fan.

"Hook 'em Hares!" it read.

But alas, Forney's football faithfuls were souls of heartbreaking disappointment before the day was through. Forney's fine team lost to Sonora 39-28.