Goodbye Lawrence, hello Orlando, Fla.

Kansas University football players, coaches, families and support personnel will leave today for the site of the Tangerine Bowl.

A traveling party of about 235 will depart by bus from Parrott Complex at 10:30 a.m. for Topeka’s Forbes Field, where they will board a noon American Airlines charter flight to Orlando.

Folks associated with Orlando’s tourist industry will be glad to see them.

“People in Orlando will tell you this is a calm week for them, so they’re happy we’re coming,” said Sean Lester, KU’s associate athletic director for internal operations. “Our group is much greater than Texas Tech brought last year.”

Kansas will be using, Lester said, approximately 1,800 of the 2,200 rooms in the Caribe Royale Hotel.

After today’s late afternoon arrival, the players and coaches will depart immediately for practice. Coach Mark Mangino will drill the Jayhawks for about two hours at McCracken Field adjacent to Florida State Citrus Stadium, site of Monday’s Tangerine Bowl clash with North Carolina State.

The Jayhawks’ equipment will be waiting for them. The 18-wheel tractor and trailer rig that hauls football gear to road games departed for Orlando Monday night and was scheduled to arrive Tuesday night.

Thursday’s schedule shows the Jayhawks practicing in the morning, then becoming tourists and visiting Walt Disney World in the afternoon. Friday’s practice will be in the afternoon.

Kansas University defensive end Reggie Curry drops off his bag as the Jayhawks prepare to depart for the Tangerine Bowl in Orlando, Fla. Curry made the drop Tuesday at Horejsi Center.

Saturday, the Jayhawks will practice in the morning, then the team party will do the tourist thing again by going to Universal Studios in the afternoon.

Saturday, too, will be the day when two more charter airplanes will arrive in Orlando bearing the KU marching band, the spirit squad, staffers, families and boosters.

As it customary the day before a game, an afternoon walk-through is on tap Sunday. Also Sunday, Mangino and a dozen or so players will visit Give Kids the World Village, a nonprofit resort for children with life-threatening illnesses and their families.

Kickoff Monday will be at 4:30 p.m. ESPN (Sunflower Broadband Channel 48) will telecast.

How large a group of KU fans will be on hand for the Jayhawks’ first bowl game in eight years is anybody’s guess.

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Kansas had sold about 3,250 of its allotment of 12,000 tickets as of Tuesday, according to senior staffer Jim Marchiony, but it’s possible many KU alums and fans who live in the Orlando area will buy tickets at the gate.

“The bowl people tell us some Kansas fans have bought tickets from them,” Marchiony said. “We just don’t know how many. Perhaps we’ll have a better idea later in the week.”

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Football only: The KU Network’s Bob Davis and Max Falkenstien will be broadcasting the Tangerine Bowl, but not the Wolf Pack Classic basketball tournament Saturday and Sunday in Reno, Nev. Don Marchand, who works for the ESPN affiliate in Reno, will do the play-by-play and former Jayhawk Brett Ballard will be the analyst.

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Student-athletes: KU focused on finals during the days leading up to today’s departure for Orlando. Some of KU’s players were forced to take some of their finals early, because they departed in the middle of finals week.

“It’s a little different. We’ve never done this before,” KU quarterback Bill Whittemore said. “We’re kind of working out throughout the week and we’re going to hit the weekends pretty hard.”