Since 2004, members of the Brown gymnastics team have recorded their names, hometowns and years of team membership on a wall in the gymnasium at the Pizzitola Sports Center.
The “legacy wall” was created in 2004 by Melissa Forziat ’05, who documented the names of former team members on the gymnasium’s wall. Since then, Brown gymnasts have continued to add their names to the wall.
Each square on the wall was given to one athlete or staff member of a Brown gymnastics team. Earlier this year, the wall boasted around 250 names. But on Sept. 11, members of the gymnastics team walked into their gym to find the wall painted white, according to a statement from Forziat.
“Nobody (from Brown Athletics) gave anybody any heads-up on this as the wider community,” Forziat, who was part of the team from 2001 to 2005, said in an interview with The Herald.
In a letter to the Brown gymnastics community on Sept. 24, Head Coach Brittany Harris and Sport Supervisor Jen Miller-McEachern apologized that they “did not adequately communicate these changes to our community in advance.”
Harris and Miller-McEachern explained that the wall was painted over as part of a planned upgrade to the facility. They added that plans were already in place “to create a permanent tribute to the proud history of our program.”
But the painting of the wall generated strong reactions from program alums, some of whom were not satisfied by the letter.
“Part of the importance of (the legacy wall) was that it was a grassroots process and heartfelt in a way that focus groups and a planned wall or plaque can’t really ever be,” said Amy Morris ’96, who was on the team from 1992 to 1996. “It evolved over the years, and people participated over the years in ways that they now cannot. That’s been stripped away.”
According to the letter from Harris and Miller-McEachern, plans for the development of a Brown Gymnastics Alumnae Association were under development. The group will be responsible for gathering community input on “an appropriate tribute within the updated facility,” as well as strengthening connections between current athletes and alums.
The situation “definitely could be handled in a different way,” McKenna Weiner ’24 said. “I just honestly find it really strange that the staff kind of just roguely decided to do this without consulting anyone.”
The Brown gymnastics team was eliminated by the University in 1991, alongside the women’s volleyball program and men’s water polo and golf teams. In 1992, a group of female athletes filed a Title IX lawsuit against the University. In 1996, the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled in favor of the student-athletes.
The lawsuit was ongoing for the entirety of Morris’s time at Brown. She drew parallels between the University’s cutting the program in 1991 and the act of painting over the wall.
Upon hearing of the development with the wall, Morris “felt several emotions,” she said. “I’m not sure which was first: sadness or anger, honestly, or just a sense of deja vu.”
The Herald reached out to all 19 current members of the Gymnastics team for comment. Two declined to comment and 16 did not reply. One team member would only speak on the condition of anonymity, for fear of retaliation from alums.
“I understand why (the wall) means a lot to the gymnasts who signed it,” the team member who requested anonymity, a Brown gymnastics senior, wrote in a message to The Herald. “I don’t see painting the wall as a step back for women’s sports. The investment our program is getting now is what supports the visibility of women’s sports.”
“I was surprised at first, but the gym looks cleaner and more professional now, and our coaches have plans to add banners and new decor that celebrate our program's history.” the senior wrote. “I see it as part of a bigger investment in our program.”
“Our history isn’t going anywhere,” she added.
The reaction in the community was largely sparked by a Sept. 11 Facebook post by Lisa Barca-Hall P’18, a parent of a former student-athlete on the team, in the online group Brown G.A.P.S. — gymnasts, alumnae, parents, supporters — announcing that the wall had been painted over.
The post led to an outpouring of distress on the forum and the creation of a shared album into which community members placed pictures of the wall and the team over the years.
“I think it’s insulting,” Forziat said. “I think that the purpose of the wall was to be inclusive, to honor the legacy of this team, to honor every person who’s contributed.” Forziat started a petition advocating for the Brown gymnastics community to “have a voice in how its legacy is restored,” the petition reads. The petition currently has over 200 signatures.
“We went through a lot to stand up and be counted and be seen and move the needle forward for women and women’s sports nationally, and that has deep meaning for many of us,” Morris said.
“I recognize they have a hard job. It is very hard to please everybody,” she added. “It’s also not hard to do things right sometimes.”
Sajiv Mehta is a sports editor. He is from Scarsdale, New York and plans on concentrating in English and American Studies. In his free time, he can be found reading an encyclopedic novel or watching the Yankees.
