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• Deer-motorcycle accident sends RF man to hospital; driver cited for OWI
• Annual UW-RF rodeo set for this weekend

An early morning crash between a motorcycle and a deer sent a River Falls man to a St. Paul hospital.

H. Jacob Howey, 20, struck a deer at approximately 2:50 a.m. when he was driving his 2004 Yamaha motorcycle west on Highway 29 just east of 805th Street.

Howey was taken to Regions Hospital in St. Paul by the River Falls Area Ambulance. Friday morning he was listed in fair condition according to Regions' officials.

Alcohol may have played a part in the accident.

Howey was cited for operating a vehicle while intoxicated, according Neil Gulbranson, chief deputy of the Pierce County Sheriff's Department.

A phone call from a passerby sent Pierce County deputies to the scene. Once on the there those deputies asked for assistance from the River Falls Police Department.

Pierce County Sheriff's Department officials are continuing their investigation into the accident.

Once again the Falcon Frontier Days Rodeo will bring college rodeo action to River Falls this weekend.

This is the 42nd year of the event which was started in1964 by the late Gerhard "Doc" Bohn, a professor of animal science at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, and it was one of the first student rodeos east of the Mississippi.

Performances are scheduled for Friday, Sept. 15 at 7 p.m. and Saturday, Sept. 16 at 1:30 and 7 p.m.

The rodeo will be held at the UW-River Falls Lab Farm No. 1 outdoor arena on Wasson Road at the junction of Cemetery Road, just west of Highway 65 in River Falls.

Advance tickets are available at the Hagestad Student Center or in the Agriculture Science building on the UW-River Falls campus, Pleasant Hills Saddle Shop in River Falls or Bernard's Northtown in River Falls and New Richmond. Advance tickets are sold at $1 discount, according to school officials.

Free tickets can be obtained with new or renewed subscriptions to the River Falls Journal, Hudson Star-Observer, Pierce County Herald or the New Richmond News; call 1-800-284-3402 for more information.

The annual Falcon Frontier Days Rodeo is a part of the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association circuit and is sponsored by the UW-River Falls Rodeo Club.

Each year the rodeo club competes in about 10 rodeos across the country as part of the NIRA, and is one of 14 collegiate rodeo clubs competing in the Great Plains region.