SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Thousands of University of Oregon football fans packed into the open-air mall of Santa Monica Place on Wednesday afternoon and were treated to a brief but boisterous pep rally in advance of today’s Rose Bowl.

Duck supporters lined the handrails on all three stories of the mall plaza and were worked into a frenzy by the Oregon Marching Band, cheerleaders and a couple of special guests.

Oregon fans were gearing up for this afternoon’s national semifinal contest against Florida State, the winner of which will advance to the national championship game.

The crowd noise grew to a fever pitch when Duck legend Kenny Wheaton was introduced onto the small, makeshift stage.

Wheaton is famous for his interception return for a touchdown against Washington in 1994 that propelled the Ducks to victory and to the Rose Bowl that season.

“To see Oregon football where it’s at now is just a really, really amazing thing, and I’m just happy to be a part of it in some sort of way,” Wheaton said. “The support and the fan base is really amazing.”

Wheaton, 39, was all smiles as he posed for photos with fans long after the 20-minute rally ended.

“Being an old guy like myself, for someone to remember you for what you did 20 years ago, it’s a great feeling, and I welcome it,” Wheaton said.

Oregon athletic director Rob Mullens was also on hand and was introduced on stage along with the interim university president, Scott Coltrane.

“Everywhere we’ve been this week the Duck faithful have been out strong,” Mullens said just before the rally. “We’ve taken our show on the road several times into enemy territory. It’s nice to have such a significant game in our backyard, so to speak.”

Many Duck football fans from Central Oregon have made the trip to Southern California to watch their team play in what will be the first College Football Playoff game ever.

Scott McCleary, of Bend, and his wife and three kids are here for the game. An Oregon season ticket holder and dedicated fan, McCleary has attended many of Oregon’s past bowl games, including the Fiesta Bowl in 2001, the Rose Bowl in 2012, and the BCS National Championship game in 2011.

“I think the Rose Bowl, honestly, is my favorite,” McCleary said. “I just think the venue … you know, you grow up your whole life watching the Rose Bowl. It’s a really neat setting. It’s unique. And the weather is always pretty amazing.”

Southern California is enduring a cold snap this week, with high temperatures only in the 50s and 60s. But that is not stopping Duck fans such as McCleary from enjoying their time down here.

McCleary, 45 and a UO alumnus, said he endured many years in the 1980s and ’90s when the Ducks were pretty terrible at football.

“Honestly, it was hard to even fathom we would ever get there, because we were so bad,” he said. “When we grew up, they were never even on TV. We listened to them on the radio. I try to tell my kids how weird it was for a while just to see them on TV all the time, and then going to all these bowl games. You can get spoiled and lose your perspective, but if you’ve been a Duck fan for a long time, you realize it doesn’t always happen.”

A fifth-grade teacher at Ponderosa Elementary School in Bend, McCleary said he is committed to attending the national championship game on Jan. 12 in Texas should Oregon defeat Florida State today.

He is not sure when such an opportunity might arise again for the Ducks.

“Even though you start to feel like it’s going to happen every year, you never know when eventually there’s going to be a lull,” McCleary said. “That’s why we decided we’re just going to do it all this year. You can’t wait around, because who knows.”

Also taking advantage of the opportunity to travel to Southern California and watch the Rose Bowl is Erin Weaver, a 2012 graduate of Bend’s Summit High School and now a junior at the University of Oregon.

Weaver won the lottery — literally — as only 500 tickets in the 92,000-seat Rose Bowl stadium were allotted free to UO students. Other students could purchase tickets through the university.

Tickets, with a face value starting at $150, on Wednesday were ranging from $130 for upper-level seats to more than $1,000 for premium seats on the ticket website stubhub.com.

“I entered the student ticket lottery without much hope of getting one of the few free tickets, so when the email came that I’d actually received one I was thrilled,” Weaver said.

Oregon will likely have a bit of a home-field advantage based on geography, but Weaver and her fellow students hope to heighten that advantage.

“Standing in the student section during an important game is one of the most enthusiasm-charged, electric experiences I’ve ever had,” Weaver said. “Everybody knows the fight song, everybody sings the same cheers, everybody knows the same hand movements. It makes you feel like you’re part of something huge, and maybe even (somehow) influencing the outcome of the game, just by standing with 500 other fanatical students.”

Weaver will be attending the game with a group of friends, most of whom also are from Bend.

She hopes the students and the Oregon crowd can make enough ruckus to help the Ducks today in the Rose Bowl.

“As a freshman in Eugene, I used to be able to hear the cheers from football games if I had my dorm room window open, and campus is about 2½ miles away from the stadium,” Weaver said. “Hopefully we’ll be able to make that same kind of noise in the Rose Bowl.”

— Reporter: 541-383-0318,

mmorical@bendbulletin.com