Wildcat Fans Will Be Playing Hard Too : Tourism: First wave of about 5,000 Northwestern fans arrives at seven Orange County hotels in anticipation of Rose Bowl.

Hey, Steve Yeager, now that you’ve arrived in Orange County for the upcoming Rose Bowl, what are you going to do?

“First, I’m going to play some golf,” Yeager, 21, of Chicago said as he clutched a stack of eight Northwestern Rose Bowl T-shirts in the lobby of a Costa Mesa hotel. “Then I’m going to Disneyland.”

Yeager was among the first wave of about 5,000 Northwestern football fans who began taking over seven major hotels in Costa Mesa, Irvine and Newport Beach on Thursday in eager anticipation of their school’s surprising Jan. 1 matchup with USC.

Long-suffering Wildcat fans, who haven’t had much to cheer about since their team last visited the Rose Bowl in 1949, happily checked in, looking forward to the game in Pasadena and a vacation in Orange County.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance,” Mary Maddox, a 1955 Northwestern graduate, said while sipping a complimentary welcome beverage for Wildcat fans at the Westin South Coast Plaza Hotel. “I never thought I’d see this.”

Like many Wildcats, Maddox and her husband, Walter, a 1957 Northwestern graduate, were lured from their Midwestern homes by more than just a football game. The Maddoxes drove west, stopping to tour the Grand Canyon for the first time, and plan to visit the mission at San Juan Capistrano--even if the swallows haven’t returned yet.

As part of a five-day Orange County Rose Bowl package tour, Northwestern fans are scheduled for harbor cruises, trips to Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm, and visits to beaches, shops and restaurants.

Because of those selling points, Alumni Holidays International chose to book its Rose Bowl package tours to Orange County for the second year in a row. The Illinois-based business sold about 5,000 trips to Northwestern fans at $1,565 per person.

“We want people to feel like they are on vacation,” company spokeswoman Susan Rasmus said. “There’s just so much to do in Orange County.”

About 600 fans are staying in the 300-room Westin, where, like the other hotels hosting the Wildcat fans, the decor and staff reflected Rose Bowl excitement. Hotel entrances were draped with welcome banners spelled out in Northwestern’s purple and white. Rose Bowl souvenirs were on sale in the lobby, and hotel employees wore Northwestern buttons on their outfits.

Amid the Northwestern paraphernalia at hotels, fans coolly predicted victory for their team, which until this year hadn’t had a winning season in 24 years.

“They’ll beat USC no doubt,” said Chris Norborg, a 1962 Northwestern graduate and now a physician practicing in South Bend, Ind. “They’re just much smarter than USC.”