PROSSER, Wash. -- They started filtering in to the Princess Theatre a half-hour before kickoff, some of them wearing blue and orange, others in red and white, all of them talking about football and a couple of local boys playing on the big stage -- and, on Monday night, on the big screen at the Princess as well.

It wasn't nearly a full house at the 260-seat theater, but that's only because similar scenes were playing out all over town. Across the street at Shy's Pizza, around the corner at Bern's Tavern, one block over at the Horse Heaven Hills Brewery and in virtually every living room in this little town, television screens were all showing one thing: the Fiesta Bowl featuring unbeaten Texas Christian University against the team all of Prosser has adopted as its own, the Boise State Broncos.

"The whole town will be watching," said Jim Milne, director of Prosser's chamber of commerce. "You could come in and steal us blind tonight, and nobody would have a clue. Everybody's going to be watching the game."

That's because Boise State's starting quarterback is Kellen Moore, who three years ago was wearing red and white and throwing passes for the Prosser Mustangs. One of his favorite Bronco targets is freshman wide receiver Kirby Moore, his younger brother.

When the brothers were featured in a pregame part of the television broadcast, and Kellen said to the TV audience, "You think Boise's a small town, well ... we grew up in Prosser, Washington," the Princess audience erupted in cheers.

"These were the kind of kids you want to have coming over to your house, and you certainly felt it was awesome when your kids were heading over their way," said Kevin Lusk, whose sons grew up with Kellen and Kirby. "Now they're running around on television."

Sheryl Roberts remembers all the times the Moore boys, like other Mustang standouts before them, did their part in school fundraisers by auctioning off ... well, themselves.

"These boys would sign a football and they'd offer to spend at least an hour of their time playing football with a child, and parents would bid on that," said Roberts, who runs Shy's Pizza downtown and used to serve on the school's PTA board. "Then when they set up the appointment, they'd tell the kid, 'Bring your friends.' And then (Kellen and Kirby) would bring some of their teammates with them, and they'd all end up playing not for an hour, but for two or three hours.

"And it wouldn't be, 'Oh, I have to spend time with little kids.' They would have fun."

Melinda White, who works in the office at Heights Elementary in Prosser, proudly wore a Boise State jersey to work on Monday. About four years ago, when her sons Colby and Justin celebrated their birthdays two weeks apart, she purchased them that very gift: a chance to throw the ball around with Kellen Moore, then the Mustangs' quarterback.

"He was very kind," White recalled. "(The boys) loved it. They just thought they hit the jackpot."

Barb Warner taught Kellen and Kirby in her advanced-placement English class at Prosser, where both were National Honor Society students. She recalls watching them at Shy's Pizza during a school fund-raiser, showing up to have their photographs taken with child after child.

"The little kids were getting their pictures taken with the football stars, and they were so sweet with those kids," Warner said. "There was just no ego there. It was just being a good example for the little kids, and they know that's their job: to be a good example for the little kids.

"They're just really nice guys."

And healthy ones, too.

"They ate right," said Doug Fassler, an assistant Prosser football coach who also teaches driver's education. Noting that most of the school's students head off-campus to fast-food restaurants for lunch, he said the Moore brothers always brown-bagged it. "Kirby would always bring what I'd call bag-O-food, these massive bags of all healthy stuff. Vegetables, fruits, two or three sandwiches," he said. "Lots of food, but healthy food."

Eating the right things, and -- says pretty much anybody you talk to in Prosser -- saying and doing the right things, too.

"This kid's been interviewed by just about everybody," Fassler said of Kellen Moore, who was college football's most efficient passer this year and finished seventh in this year's Heisman Trophy voting. "But I doubt you could find a quote where he's ever mentioned himself. It's always about team.

"We're just very proud of him, and a large part of it is because they're such good kids. It's obviously a tiny little town and to have somebody in Heisman Trophy contention and have (ESPN analyst) Lee Corso mention his name, it's a thrill."

It's a thrill those closest to the Mustangs' football program might have seen coming. The Moore boys grew up around the coaching staff, where their father, Tom, was the Mustangs' highly successful head coach. Kellen, who has ambitions of being a college coach, was a devout student of the game; almost daily, he spent long hours studying game film, not just of Prosser and its opponents, but of college and NFL teams as well -- anything to improve his understanding of game strategy.

It showed on the field. Even as a high schooler Kellen played the game with an almost preternatural calm, assessing opposing defenses in a single glance, avoiding blind-side tackles as if he has eyes in the back of his head, never getting rattled on the field.

And never making it about himself.

As a high school senior, Kellen played a state quarterfinal game with a split-open middle finger on his passing hand that required stitches and made it nearly impossible to grip the ball. He had one of his worst games, but with the score tied and 19 seconds remaining, he still managed to throw the game-winning touchdown pass -- to his younger brother.

Then, in postgame interviews, Kellen never even mentioned the injury ... which only became public when a reporter happened to see him removing his gloves a minute later, and saw that one was soaked in blood.

To Kellen, the injury simply hadn't seemed important enough to mention, even when the reporters' questions focused on how, well, un-Kellen-like his performance had been. All he cared about was that the Mustangs had won the game. In his eyes, he wasn't the story. The Mustangs were.

Now the Broncos are, largely because of the Moore boys, and Boise people have begun traveling to Prosser, as if on a pilgrimage to some kind of gridiron mecca, the place Kellen and Kirby came from.

At least once a week, somebody wearing Boise State's blue-and-orange team colors comes into the town's visitor center, wanting to see the sights of Prosser and, by extension, insights into their football heroes.

Often, they'll wander into Bern's Tavern, even though, as owner Darren Dodgson said with a chuckle, (Kirby and Kellen) "have probably never been in the bar. But it's like (for Boise people) we're a little museum in here, being one of the town hubs, and they're just checking the town out and want to see where the Moore boys are from."

The Pratt family from Boise took it one step further. Unable to make the trip for this year's Fiesta Bowl with his 15-year-old son (and big-time Boise State fan) Nathan, Rob Pratt contacted the Princess Theatre. Theater manager Reba Fink printed up and mailed "tickets" to the "Fiesta Bowl viewing party" in downtown Prosser, home of the Moore brothers. The tickets weren't necessary, since admission was free, but Rob Pratt wanted something special to put in Nathan's Christmas stocking.

"This was the big gift," Rob Pratt said as the team arrived at the theater Monday evening. "Getting to come here."

The gift they all wanted at the Princess Theatre, of course, was a Boise State victory, and they got it when the Broncos came away with a 17-10 win.

But this is the gift that keeps on giving. Kellen and Kirby Moore will be back, still playing good football.

"And you've probably heard this a ton," Kevin Lusk said, "but they're better people than they are players."

That's saying something.