Don't miss out on any of our exclusive football, basketball and recruiting coverage. Sign up with TheHoosier.com here.

Before Tom Allen answered any questions during his individual press conference Tuesday during Big Ten Media Days, Indiana's head coach made an announcement.

"I'd like to announce the beginning of a new tradition," Allen said. Starting this season, Indiana will honor one of its greatest trailblazers by wearing George Taliaferro's jersey as a tribute to his legacy and his impact on the game of college football.

Allen would go on to announce that redshirt senior linebacker Aaron Casey, nicknamed "Ace" by his teammates and coaching staff, is the first to earn the new honor.

While at Indiana, Taliaferro was a three-time All-American, excelling at multiple positions and helping to break the color barrier in sports on his way to a 1981 induction to the College Football Hall of Fame. The idea came about when, due to the difficulty with retiring numbers and taking them out of rotation with how things are nowadays, the coaching staff was searching for ways to honor Taliaferro in a more permanent sense in the program.

"We thought it'd be a great honor to have someone wear #44 in our program so that the number could be seen out on the field every Saturday," said Mike Pechac, the Director of Player Development and Academic Advancement in the program

The criteria for the selection isn't a simple process, however. Pechac says they were looking for someone who is an upperclassmen and has done an "unbelievable" job of representing the program during their time at IU, is a great teammate, a leader in the locker room, works hard academically, and loves their teammates. Casey checked all the boxes.

"When coach asked me and we kind of brought it top and talked to coach [Mark] Deal about it, when we said Aaron, we call him 'Ace', everybody agreed 100% that's gotta be the first guy," Pechac said.

"Honestly, I was kind of shocked at first," Casey said. "I didn't really know why they wanted to pick me, but obviously they must've saw something in me that I can represent what he stood for and the things behind them. So I was blessed and honored to represent him with the #44.

"To me, he had to fight through adversity so much back in the day to where there's a lot of discrimination going on in the world. He was able to overcome is and pursue his dreams and become the best he could be in a bad situation.

"Being a young black man in the society we live in today and going through that adversity, and I know how much he went through back in the day, just the struggles and tribulations. Having it turned into a positive at the end of the day and looking at it as something great, it just means a lot."

----

• Talk about it inside The Hoops Forum or The Football Forum

• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes

• Follow us on Twitter: @IndianaRivals

• Like us on Facebook.