Rodeo LIFE D WORDS BY RYAN SCOTT- ETAMU MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS
PHOTO COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Clemens Herberstein’ s noble road to ETAMU’ s rodeo team
Unique paths often lead students to East Texas A & M University. But you ' d be hard-pressed to find a journey as unique as Clemens Herbersteins’.
Picture this: You ' re a first-year student in a foreign country. You ' ve never even ridden a horse before in your life but you decide to try out for saddle bronc riding on a university rodeo team in Commerce, Texas. Who does something like that?
“ I felt a draw to the rawness and intensity of rodeo. The more time I ' ve spent in Texas, the more it looked like something fun to try,” said Herberstein, the kind of guy who would do
COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS something like that. But let ' s back up. Clemens ' story has a bit of history that ' s worth telling.
A Noble Legacy
While the name“ Herberstein” may not ring as many bells in America as say,“ Windsor,” in Austria, it ' s a different story.
The Herberstein family can trace its roots in Austrian high society back to the 1200s, with a 700-plus-year-old castle to boot. Many renowned people bore the name throughout history, including Sigismund von Herberstein, a 16th-century diplomat and member of the Imperial Council of the Holy
6 GREENVILLE LIFE