Baseball | 5/28/2019 4:34:00 PM

FLUSHING, N.Y. (May 28, 2019) - The Queens College baseball team and the Athletics and Recreation Department in its entirety mourn the loss of Joe Russo, a longtime baseball coach in the Queens area who made a brief stopover with the Knights in his coaching tenure.

Russo passed away on Sunday after a long illness. He was 74 years old.

Russo joined the coaching staff of Head Baseball Coach Tom Sowinski in 2012 after coaching at St. John's University from 1973 through 1996. A legend in the coaching annals of New York City collegiate baseball, Russo accumulated over 1,000 wins in fall and spring baseball competition with the Red Storm and was a 1997 inductee into the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

Mourning the passing, current Head Baseball Coach Chris Reardon noted the following: "He was a great baseball coach with many great years as the Head Coach of St. John's University and this program greatly benefited from his arrival as an assistant coach here in Flushing.  His passion and knowledge from the game were hallmarks of who Coach Russo was as a baseball figure and as a human being. We will all remember him as a leader and a great innovator for this sport. Our thoughts, prayers and condolences all go out to his family and to those who he loved as well as to those who loved him right back."