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HALIFAX -- The moose calls fill the building, created by fans who achieve the effect by pulling a rope through a hole in a tomato can.
People wearing knit wool sweaters with moose embroidered on front and back while donning antlers on their heads are arriving in ever-growing numbers.
And attendance is starting to swell at Morning Classes, the Northern Ontario tradition in its 62nd year hosted by the Fort William Curling Club that run from 7:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. in the memory of originator Collie Campbell and involve a gin-based "eye-opener" concoction to send curling fans off to the morning draw.
MEN OF THE MOOSE
Just as people were prepared to read the last rights for Northern Ontario as a "province" at the Brier, the men of the Moose, for the first time since 1993 Northern Ontario has qualified for the playoffs at the great celebration of Canadiana.
On the endangered species list going into this Brier, skip Brad Jacobs and his cousins third E.J. "Hurry Hard" Harnden and Ryan "Hurry Harder" Harnden as well as lead Caleb Flaxey may have upset plans to replace its annual entry with a Team Canada as is the case with the Scotties.
The move has been rumoured as part of plans to be decided this summer and implemented in 2012 to give Nunavut, Yukon and the Northwest Territories all "province" status with a relegation system of provinces moving in and out every year.
"I'm hoping we're proving the point that Northern Ontario deserves to be in the Brier," said Jacobs.
"Northern Ontario has been here forever and I don't think it deserves to go out.
"We were hoping to prove that by coming here and playing the way we've played. That was a big goal of ours. And so far, I think you can say we did that."
Indeed, with Alberta's Kevin Koe losing to Ontario's 11-0 Glenn Howard Thursday night, Northern Ontario's eight-game winning streak after losing two of their first three, ended up leaving them alone in second place. And that was good for a spot in the 1-2 game for the first time since the Page playoff system came into use in 1995. The winner of Friday's 1-2 game goes to Sunday's final and the loser returns for Saturday's semifinal.
Imagine if Northern Ontario made it to the final?
How do you kick a team out of the Brier if they make it to the final?
And imagine if they won it?
New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and the Territories have never won Briers. Newfoundland has just one -- by Jack MacDuff in 1976. Saskatchewan hasn't won a Brier since 1980.
The last time Northern Ontario made it to the final four, when Rick Laing took his team to the playoffs in Ottawa in 1993, Jacobs, the youngest skip at the Brier at age 24, was seven.
The last time the Moose won the Brier, Al Hackner skipping back in 1985 in Moncton. Only two members of the rink, E.J. and Flaxey, were born yet. They were one.
Hackner also won it two years earlier.
UNDER THE RADAR
Flying under the radar all the way while everybody concentrated on The Four of Glenn Howard, Kevin Koe, Brad Gushue and Jeff Stoughton, Jacobs's Northern Ontario team beat Stoughton on the second draw Saturday before knocking off Gushue's Newfoundland crew 8-4 Thursday morning and then bouncing the other upstart squad, Serge Reid's Quebec team from the grand national bonspiel in the afternoon.
"I'm ecstatic right now. It's been so long since Northern Ontario made the playoffs," said Jacobs, who threw last rocks for his uncle Al Harnden at the 2007 Brier in Hamilton.
E.J. and Ryan played at the 2008 Winnipeg Brier for their dad, and Jacobs's other uncle Eric.
"I know everyone back home is absolutely thrilled. We're thrilled," said Jacobs.
"I guess we're not that much of an underdog anymore, right?" asked Jacobs.
"Everybody back home from Thunder Bay to the Soo to Sudbury and North Bay have to be thrilled."
TERRY.JONES@SUNMEDIA.CA