For more than two decades, a wall inside Brown University’s Pizzitola Sports Center carried the names of the people who had been part of the gymnastics program. Created in 2004 by former gymnast Melissa Forziat, the legacy wall became a tradition, with generations of gymnasts, coaches, and staff adding their names. That tradition ended on September 11, when the wall was painted white and around 250 names disappeared. And now, this decision has upset former members of the program, with Forziat among those speaking out about the loss of a piece of Brown gymnastics history.
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Speaking about its removal, Forziat, who competed for Brown from 2001 to 2005, said, “I think it’s insulting … 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 said.
Forziat’s concern is also tied to the way the change happened. She said the gymnastics community was not given advance notice before the names were covered, leaving former members to discover that a piece of their shared history was suddenly gone. Among the names lost was that of Jackie Court, Brown’s first gymnastics head coach, who died in 2020. Court led the program for 32 years and was later inducted into the Brown Athletic Hall of Fame.
Forziat has since called for former and current gymnasts to have a role in deciding how Brown preserves that history. On September 15, she launched a Change.org petition, “Restoring the Brown Gymnastics Legacy,” along with an open letter and photographs of the wall before it was painted. “We don’t just want our legacy restored. We want a say in how that happens,” Forziat wrote.
Brown gymnastics head coach Brittany Harris and sport supervisor Jen Miller-McEachern acknowledged that the change was not communicated properly. In a statement, they apologized that they “did not adequately communicate these changes to our community in advance.”
The change has also drawn a different reaction from at least one current team member. A Brown gymnastics senior, who requested anonymity, said, “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.”
With the original wall gone, the focus has shifted to what Brown will put in its place and how the program will remember the people who came before its current athletes. Forziat wants former and current members to be part of that conversation, while Brown’s coaching staff says a permanent tribute is planned for the future.
Brown plans a new tribute as former gymnasts question what was lost
Brown gymnastics head coach Brittany Harris and sport supervisor Jen Miller-McEachern said the wall was painted over as part of a planned facility upgrade and that plans were already in place “to create a permanent tribute to the proud history of our program.” The current team has also pointed to plans for new banners and décor celebrating Brown gymnastics’ history.
At the same time, Harris and Miller-McEachern said a Brown Gymnastics Alumnae Association was being developed to give former and current members a voice in shaping an appropriate tribute for the updated facility, while also strengthening connections between the two groups.
For Amy Morris ’96, who competed for Brown from 1992 to 1996, the question is whether a new tribute can capture what made the original wall so meaningful. She described it as a “grassroots process” that grew naturally over the years, with members of the program taking part in creating a record of their own history.
“It evolved over the years, and people participated over the years in ways that they now cannot. That’s been stripped away,” Morris said. For Morris, the reaction to the wall’s removal is also tied to a difficult chapter in Brown gymnastics history. The university eliminated the women’s gymnastics program in 1991.
When Morris learned the legacy wall had been painted over, she said it brought back memories of that period, leaving her with feelings of sadness, anger and “a sense of deja vu.”
With the legacy wall gone, the debate now centers on how Brown will preserve the program’s history and whether former and current gymnasts will have a voice in shaping what comes next.