Corrinne Tarver, Fisk’s coach, is out midseason — Watch her TEDx talk on diversity and inclusion in gymnastics

Corrinne Tarver announced on Wednesday that she was leaving her position as the head gymnastics coach at Fisk University “with a heavy heart.”

Tarver was the first Black gymnast to win the NCAA all-around title, a feat she accomplished in 1989 while competing at Georgia. She became the first head coach of the first gymnastics team in the United States at a historically Black college or university (HBCU). 

There were 99 HBCUs as of 2022, the last year data was available, and they enrolled just under 290,000 students. Fifty are public and 49 are private. 

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HBCUs are schools founded before 1964 to educate Black Americans. The year 1964 is important because the Civil Rights Act was passed that year. Title VI of that act prohibits discrimination based on race, color or national origin by any program or actvity receiving federal funding. That includes college admissions.

Before 1964, many colleges and universities did not admit Black students, either by law (Jim Crow laws in the South, for example) or through quota systems. 

HBCUs filled a void for Black Americans seeking higher education. At a time when K-12 schools were segregated throughout the country and education for Black children was decidedly both separate and unequal, HBCUs offered the chance for young adults to level that rutted playing field, attain undergraduate and graduate degrees, and become leaders in their fields and communities. 

Fisk University, a private liberal arts school, was founded in 1866, nearly a century before the Civil Rights Act was passed and less than a year after the end of the Civil War. It is the oldest of four HBCUs in Nashville, Tennessee. Its first classrooms were in former Union Army barracks. 

In 2022, Fisk hired Tarver to coach its gymnastics team, which was the product of a partnership with Brown Girls Do Gymnastics. Brown Girls Do Gymnastics is an advocacy organization that strives to make gymnastics more accessible to Black and Brown athletes. Just 8% of the athletes in NCAA gymnastics are Black, according to the NCAA Demographics Database. 

Fisk debuted in the 2023 season and currently has 20 gymnasts on its roster. On Feb. 8, Fisk’s Morgan Price became the first HBCU athlete to score a perfect 10. 

In 2024, Talladega State in Alabama created the second HBCU gymnastics team, but the team was eliminated after just one season. Wilberforce University in Ohio became the third HBCU to have a team in 2025. 

I don’t know what led to Tarver’s midseason departure and won’t speculate. I will say that in the current political climate, with diversity, equity and inclusion efforts by American institutions being stripped away, both HBCU sports and HBCUs in general may be in peril. Now is the time to support HBCU gymnastics and HBCU gymnasts any way you can.

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Other gym news

Balance Beam Situation shows up as always with your Week 8 NCAA schedule and links and, of course, the GIFs. 

College Gym News has, of course, your leo rankings. There’s also a Judge’s Inquiry column about leap series on floor and a feature on recruiting in the Ivy League. 

The Gymternet takes a look at the Cottbus World Cup, scheduled for this weekend. It also has the results from Elite Canada and the Welsh Championships. 

GymCastic features an interview with Rhys McClanaghan. Even though we’re focused on the women’s side of the sport here, this is a solid interview with the Irish 2024 Olympic gold medalist (on pommel horse, his specialty). 

All Things Gymnastics talks about last weekend’s matchup between No. 2 LSU and No. 1 Oklahoma and spotlights Michigan gymnast Kayli Boozer. 

Jordan Chiles was named one of Time’s Women of the Year for 2025. 

Autumn Grable, UCLA’s former assistant coach, will receive a liver transplant soon. Hooray! 

Madison Kocian is engaged! 

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Five at The IX: Corrinne Tarver’s TEDx talk

Tarver gave this talk a year ago. It discusses the push for more diversity and inclusion in gymnastics and gives more background on the decision to start an HBCU team.