DALLAS -- In a soulful ceremony brightened by song and tales of football, about 1,500 family, friends, teammates and coaches filled a southern Dallas church Friday to remember Ennis Haywood, a 23-year-old Dallas Cowboys running back.

At an altar adorned with flowers and football uniforms from Dallas Carter High School, Iowa State University and the Cowboys, several pastors, coaches and teammates recalled a young man full of life with an illuminating smile, magnetic personality and a bold sense of style that led him to wear a red pinstripe suit to his first Iowa State game.

"The heavenly team needed a star runner just the other day,'' Pastor M.O. Gerald said during the two-hour service at Inspired Body of Christ Church. "The Lord said 'Ennis, I need a running back. Come on home.'''

Tears streaming down her cheeks, Haywood's wife, Kristal, kissed her husband's face and brushed his cheek as she stood by his coffin, where he lay in a slate blue suit, his hand placed over a red and white football that bore his name.

The player's mother, Carol Haywood, who a coach said drove 12 hours in the night to make every one of her son's home games at Iowa state, kissed her son's forehead just before his coffin was closed with a covering draped in his Cowboys No. 46 jersey.

Haywood, whose wife is expecting the couple's second child in a couple of weeks, died Sunday at an Arlington hospital when his family removed him from life support. He was taken to the hospital the day before after he began vomiting in his sleep. An autopsy has so far failed to reveal the cause of the young athlete's death.

The undrafted free agent was on the Cowboys' practice squad last season. He led the team in rushing in the preseason with 120 yards on 31 carries. The day before he died, he completed four 300-yard sprints with a minute and 30 seconds of rest between each run and was expected to compete for a roster spot at halfback.

Veteran safety Darren Woodson told the congregation that Haywood "shined from day one,'' when he walked into his first mini-camp.

"If you knew Ennis, you knew his heart ... He was a friend, he was my family, he was my little brother,'' said Woodson, who was overcome with emotion and had to be comforted by former Cowboys running back Emmitt Smith.

"Upon this loss, know this, family: Not only are you grieving but we are grieving as well,'' Smith said.

The 34-year-old Smith tried to lighten the mood by recounting how playfully critical and competitive the younger Haywood could be.

"It's one thing I had to deal with Troy Hambrick, but it's another thing I had to deal with Ennis, talking about he was going to break all my records,'' Smith said.

Iowa State coach Dan McCarney told stories of Haywood, from their first meeting when the high schooler pulled up to Dallas Carter in a low rider, to the game against UNLV when the freshman fumbled the ball and promised his coaches it would never happen again. In the four years of college football that followed, it never happened again, McCarney said.

"He was the first one to go to work and the last one to leave,'' McCarney said.

A video tribute featured photos of Haywood as a baby, as a lanky student, as a groom at his wedding, and video footage captured the star back, making his own blocks and running for touchdowns.

One humorous moment came when Cowboys owner Jerry Jones called Ennis Emmitt for about the third time. Congregants gently corrected him in unison: "Ennis,'' they said.

His friends called him "E-Hay,'' the 1998 Dallas Carter homecoming duke and unofficial class clown who rose from humble beginnings to become the Cowboy he'd dreamed of being and a role model for kids who would follow him.

His casket was driven to the cemetery in a gleaming white carriage, pulled by two horses and crowned with the three helmets he wore during his brief football career.