FIU Sports Hall of Fame: The woman who opened Europe for FIU basketball

There were many times during Cindy Russo’s legendary career that her FIU women’s basketball team was more well-known overseas than it was in Miami.

“I would go to games in Europe,” Russo said, “and I would see lots of kids with FIU shirts.”

That’s because Russo – who led FIU to 18 seasons of at least 20 wins and nine NCAA Tournament appearances – was a trail blazer in terms of an American basketball coach going full-scale into recruiting international players, especially from Eastern Europe.

Among the star collegians Russo recruited were Andrea Nagy and Dalma Ivanyi of Hungary; and Albena Branzova and Gergana Slavcheva of Bulgaria.

“I did invent (recruiting basketball players from Eastern Europe),” Russo said when asked by the Miami Herald. “Then everyone followed suit.”

Russo said she was so successful that many rival coaches asked if she could help them recruit in those countries.

“I told them no,” Russo said with a laugh.

Now 72, Russo is one of five individuals who will be inducted into FIU’s Sports Hall of Fame on Sept. 12. She will be joined by football star T.Y. Hilton; track standout and Olympic gold medalist Tayna Lawrence; two-time national championship soccer coach Karl Kremser; and three-time All-American soccer player Munga Eketbi.

Russo, who has lived in Coconut Grove for 45 years and also spends about three months each summer in Minneapolis, was a shooting guard in her playing days, earning a scholarship from Old Dominion.

“At that time,” Russo said, “only about five colleges were offering scholarships for women’s basketball.”

After her playing career was over, Russo landed a job as on assistant coach at her alma mater, Old Dominion, where she traveled to New York to recruit and sign Nancy “Lady Magic” Lieberman, who is now in the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.

While at Old Dominion, Russo also helped sign Inge Nissen, a 6-5 center from Denmark. Nissen went on to become perhaps the most important person in Russo’s career.

In 1989, Russo hired Nissen as her top assistant coach at FIU.

“I told Inge that I wanted to go with her to every European country, looking for players we could sign,” Russo said. “She thought I was crazy because a lot of those countries were under communist rule at that time.”

Prior to hiring Nissen, Russo had been recruiting overseas, and it hadn’t gone all that well.

In 1978, while coaching Lamar, Russo said she traveled to an Eastern European communist country, known as Czechoslavakia at the time.

“When I got off the plane, there were so many guns and rifles,” Russo said. “I turned around and went home.”

Besides the aforementioned Hungary, Denmark and Bulgaria, Russo recruited in Romania; Poland, Russia; Turkey, Sweden; Finland; Latvia; and more.

On a trip to Romania, Russo said she and Nissen were “received with hostility” because club coaches there didn’t want FIU “taking their players.”

On another occasion, also in Romania, Russo walked by a town jail … only to see Nissen being held.

“She’s 6-5,” Russo said with a laugh. “I saw her head sticking out.

“It took me an hour to get her out because she was insulting the guards. I told her to keep quiet, but she wanted to make a statement against the communists.”

Russo said a couple of recruits she wanted to sign ended up not coming to FIU after those players’ fathers were murdered by dictatorship regimes.

As indicated, it wasn’t easy for Russo and Nissen to travel to those countries on recruiting missions, but it was worth it as FIU had seven All-Americans in that era as well as five WNBA draft picks.

Under Russo, FIU posted 22 consecutive winning seasons, and the Panthers also won 15 straight conference titles. Russo won a program-record 667 games at FIU, including three in the NCAA Tournament.

Russo’s best season – and the best year in FIU history – came in 1997-1998 as the Panthers went 29-2, including a victory over Marquette in the NCAA Tournament.

All of that helps explain why Russo was an easy choice for the school’s second-ever Hall of Fame Sports Class.

Russo, who retired in the middle of the 2014-2015 season, said she has yet to write her acceptance speech for Sept. 12.

“I want to do it right before the ceremony because I want it to be spontaneous,” Russo said. “But I’m very happy, and I’m proud of the people who will be inducted with me.”

This story was originally published September 3, 2025 at 9:17 AM.