Fisk University, the first historically Black college and university (HBCU) to have a college gymnastics team, will host a meet on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day featuring all six teams in the country that have Black female head coaches. The meet is being held at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, which offered to host after Fisk officials approached them about holding the event in a larger arena than Fisk’s. Vanderbilt’s Memorial Gym can hold more than 14,000 fans; Fisk’s facility, while also in Nashville, can hold only about a tenth of that number.
Fisk and Talladega State University in Alabama, the second HBCU to start a gymnastics team, will be competing alongside teams from Rutgers University, Brown University, the University of William & Mary, and Iowa State University. All six head coaches will participate in a panel discussion before the meet about diversity and equity in women’s gymnastics.
“It’s a milestone for college gymnastics,” said Umme Salim-Beasley, head coach at Rutgers. “This is a pioneer moment.”
“I never thought it would happen,” said Kelsey Hinton, head coach at William & Mary. “I’m not gonna lie.”
The meet was the brainchild of Corrinne Tarver, the head coach at Fisk, who began the first HBCU program in…
