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[Photo: Annika Plummer Photography]
The 2024 Dickinson State University Cowboys & Candlelight fundraising event was one for the record books! For the first time in the university’s history, a female rodeo athlete was inducted into the DSU Athletic Hall of Fame.
Bobbi (Grann) Olson competed on the DSU rodeo team for four years. As a college rodeo athlete, she was an eight-time National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association Great Plains Regional Champion, earning three all-around regional titles, three goat tying titles, and two barrel racing titles. This led to her being a four-time College National Finals Rodeo qualifier in goat tying and a three-time qualifier in barrel racing.
“It was my pleasure to introduce one of my first rodeo recruits as the first female rodeo athlete inducted into the hall of fame. Bobbi was a great competitor and has also become a great friend,” said former DSU Rodeo Team Women’s Coach Jen Obrigewitch.
Prior to DSU, Olson attended Lake Region State College for two years where she played basketball for the Royals. As a high school rodeo athlete, she qualified for four National High School Rodeo Association Finals; four times in goat tying, three times in barrel racing, and once in both breakaway roping and pole pending. She is a nine-time NDHSRA state champion, including three titles in the all-around, three in the goat tying, two in barrel racing and one in pole bending. She was the NHSRA Reserve Champion goat tier in 2007 and the National Champion in 2008. Apart from rodeo, she was also an all-state basketball player and track and field athlete.
[Photo: Samantha Joy Otte]
“I had great coaches and great horses and great support from my parents, all making it possible to be successful. College rodeo was fun! It wasn’t about rodeoing to make a living like it is now. It was long roadtrips with my friends and the best horses, and it was the best of times,” said Bobbi Olson.
Olson and her husband, Logan, along with their daughters, Emersyn and Ellie, spend a majority of their time in Stephenville, Texas, where they raise, train, and sell performance horses. They come back to the Dakotas during the summer to compete in the Badlands Circuit rodeos and spend time with family.
Brittany Grann is a ranch wife, barrel racer, sourdough baker, and owner of a social media management business. She and her husband, Ben, along with their kids, Dutton and Riata (with #3 on the way), ranch and train horses near Sheyenne, North Dakota.