Hog Weird for the Redskins : They’re Men; They Love Football; They Wear Dresses

What flagrant exhibitionism, what terrible identity crisis, what suicidal yearnings would compel a middle-aged man to wriggle into a dress and brave the taunts of 56,000 howling fans at a Washington Redskins football game?

Michael Torbert stood thoughtfully at his front-row seat at the 50-yard line at RFK Stadium. He fluffed his bright yellow tresses, smoothed the wrinkles from his polka-dot skirt and sniffed through his plastic hog snout.

“Hey, priests have been wearing dresses for years, right?” he said. “We just add a little color.”

Torbert and his pot-bellied buddies are familiar to millions of TV football viewers as the “Hogettes,” the unofficial Redskins cheerleaders who go hog-wild every Sunday afternoon in gaudy wigs and skirts, floppy hats and pink snouts.

“Our designer is Calvin Swine,” says Ralph Campbell, who wears a bleached-blonde wig and ruffled yellow dress with red Hogette sash across his ample waist. A retired Navy helicopter mechanic, he’s known as “the pretty one.”

These bearded bimbos have nicknames like “Pork Chop” and “Big Georgette” and “Peewee.” They boast an average weight of 243 pounds, nurtured by plenty of hot dogs and beer. They like to chew on huge plastic cigars.

And when the Redskins are rolling toward a touchdown, they wave their parasols and hoist their beefy legs over the railing, bellowing encouragement.

Torbert organized the Hogettes in 1983 to lead cheers for the “Hogs,” the nickname of the Redskins’ offensive linemen, and to raise money for their favorite children’s charities.

The Hogettes range in age and occupation from a 28-year-old mail carrier to a 59-year-old retired civilian employee of U.S. Army intelligence. Torbert, 45, an Energy Department engineer and longtime Redskins fan, said all the Hogettes are devoted fathers and civic activists.

Since 1983, he said, the Hogettes have helped raise $30 million for sick and underprivileged children by appearing at golf tournaments, telethons, parades and other charity benefits at their own expense.

Each of the 11 regular Hogettes spends as much as $1,000 out of pocket to attend Redskins games and logs about 5,000 miles traveling to more than 100 fund-raising events a year, Torbert said.

“I didn’t have a dress in my closet for the first 40 years,” said George Maxfield, alias “Big Georgette.” “My mom didn’t raise me that way. But I’d do anything to raise money for these kids.”