While reading her history textbook, Betty Grandy, a 9-year-old fourth-grade student from Twin Falls, Idaho, noticed that Idaho lacked an official state sport. So, she did what any 9-year-old fourth-grade student would do: She ran a poll in a neighborhood newspaper—a paper she publishes as the Grandandy Gazette—asking what Idaho’s official sport should be.
Okay, not every 9-year-old fourth-grade student would do that. Actually, this brings to mind a newspaper a 12-year-old named Thomas Edison once published from the baggage car of a train; of course, Edison’s career as a publisher ended when his printing press was tossed off the train by a conductor after one of his experiments almost burned the whole train up, but that’s another story.
As for Grandy, a majority of her 45 subscribers told her bowhunting should be the state’s official sport.
“I ran a poll within the subscribers of the newspaper, and most of them picked archery hunting,” she told KREM2. “I feel like so many people chose hunting. If there were 100 categories, it would still win.”
The other choices for the official sport she offered readers were skiing, whitewater rafting and fishing.
Local news noticed and the idea made it to the office of Idaho Gov. Brad Little (R). The governor liked the idea and encouraged her to take it to the state legislature; in fact, at KREM2 you can see a video of her speaking to legislators at a committee hearing about the idea. Her advocacy for hunting prompted lawmakers to introduce House Bill 652, which would make hunting Idaho’s official state sport.
As this was being written, House Bill 652 (from the 2026 Idaho legislative session) is currently in the state’s Senate. It was introduced on February 12, 2026, by the House Resources and Conservation Committee. It would add a new section to Idaho Code (67-4517) to designate hunting as the official state sport of Idaho, with an emergency clause for an effective date of July 1, 2026. It passed unanimously out of the House Resources & Conservation Committee on February 18. It then passed the full House on February 23, 2026, with a vote of 63-0-7. After passing the House, it was transmitted to the Senate on February 23.
You can view the full bill details, history and status of the bill at legislature.idaho.gov.
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