Indiana University: The Vanguard

Do you want a precursor of what is coming next in intercollegiate athletics?

Then visit the vanguard of college sports innovation - Indiana University.

Talk to the coaches. Visit with the athletes. Walk through the buildings. Watch the practices. You will get your answer.

What's the next big thing?

Indiana University's athletes are doing it. IU's coaches are teaching it. IU Athletics' staff members are creating and implementing it. And the facilities are housing it.

Walk through the brand-new Excellence Academy, the first-of-its-kind facility devoted to the holistic development of the modern student-athlete. In it, you will find 66,000 square feet dedicated to not only the academic and athletic pursuits of Hoosier athletes – it also features facilities and staff committed to the leadership development, life skills training, service learning and career development of Hoosiers.

You won't find anything else like it anywhere in the country. Only at Indiana University.

Talk to Dr. Matt Rhea. A Ph.D. on Kinesiology, he joined the IU Football staff in January. Rhea is not only IU's first "Speed Coach" – he's college football's first-ever to own that title. Utilizing a scientific approach, Rhea focuses exclusively on improving the Hoosiers' team speed, and is already producing amazing results.

Visit with 2016 Olympic diver and current IU senior James Connor. His coach - 2018 National Diving Coach of the Year Drew Johansen - has been the driving force behind a ground-breaking video analysis program that is not only producing results for Hoosier divers like Connor, but is being adopted by national diving federations for their elite performance development.

Watch what's unfolding in the Mark Cuban Center for Sports Media and Technology. There, you will find IU students working with the IntelFreeD system that provides a 360-degree view of the field of play. You might also find this technology at the NBA Finals, the Super Bowl or in the English Premier Soccer League. But in college? Nowhere but at IU.

In addition to these revolutionary training and performance improvements, IU has also been at the forefront when it comes to policy. In 2014, IU Athletics introduced its unprecedented Student-Athlete Bill of Rights, a pioneering, 10-point pledge that set forth the University's commitment to student-athletes during their time at IU and beyond. In 2017, the department was the first to create and adopt a policy that disqualifies any prospective student-athlete with a history of sexual or domestic violence from participating in intercollegiate activities or receiving athletically-related financial aid.

Are you interested in more? The list of trailblazing items goes on and on…

There is one university in the country that broadcasts all of its home men's basketball games in Mandarin.

Indiana University.

There is one school that broadcasts all of its home men's soccer matches in Spanish. Where?

You guessed it. Indiana University.

SportsVu for basketball…Playsight for tennis…Swim Hero for swimming…Trackman for baseball.

They are all at Indiana University.

Of course, this isn't anything new. Indiana University has been a proactive force in intercollegiate athletics for decades.

Indiana University spearheaded the integration of Big Ten Basketball when Shelbyville's Bill Garrett became the first African American to regularly play and start in the conference during the 1948-49 season. Garrett went on to earn All-America honors in 1951 and graduated as IU's all-time leading scorer.

After leading IU Football to an undefeated season and the 1945 Big Ten title, George Taliaferro became the first African-American to be drafted by an NFL team.

Elizabeth "Buzz" Kurpius became the first female to be an assistant football coach when Lee Corso hired her for that role in 1974. Kurpius – who later went on to be one of the nation's most respected and influential academic directors in collegiate athletics – was not only responsible for the team's academics, but also was a successful recruiter for the program.

So that's a little bit of the past and the present. What about the future?

For starters, this fall Indiana University football players were among the first collegiate athletes to wear Riddell's new Precision Fit helmet. Through the use of two different layers of 3-D scanning technology, each player is fitted with a custom-made helmet built specifically for them. No two helmets are alike. No helmet is safer.

What else is coming soon?

Whatever it is, rest assured you will find it first at Indiana University – the vanguard of intercollegiate athletics innovation.

In the coming weeks, IUHoosiers.com will highlight the people, places, things and decisions that have made Indiana University Athletics the leader in innovation and innovative thinking in intercollegiate athletics.

Related Videos