By Harry Minium
NORFOLK, Va. – You have to have had a stellar basketball career, including international success, to win a place in the Fédération Internationale de Basketball Hall of Fame.
But it takes more than just success on the court. You must have worked to promote the game in your home country and around the world, and it helps if along the way, you helped lift thousands of young women out of poverty.
Former Old Dominion women’s basketball star Clarisse Machanguana has done all of the above in her storied career and will be rewarded Tuesday night with a place in the FIBA Hall of Fame.
The induction takes place in Berlin, Germany, and will follow the draw for the 2026 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup, which will be hosted in Berlin in September.
The eight-person class includes former NBA star Dirk Nowitzki from Germany, former WNBA star Sue Bird from the United States and Céline Dumerc (France), Hedo Türkoğlu (Turkey), Wang Zhizhi (China) and Ismenia Pauchard (Chile), who will be inducted posthumously.
Ludwik Miętta-Mikołajewicz from Poland will be inducted for his contributions as a coach.
Machanguana, the 49-year native of Mozambique, joins two former ODU stars in the FIBA Hall of Fame. The late Anne Donovan was inducted in 2015, and Tichi Penicheiro, her former Monarch teammate and close friend, was inducted in 2025.
Machanguana and Penicheiro led ODU to the 1997 Final Four, where the Monarchs lost to Tennessee in the NCAA national championship game.
Machanguana was a prodigy who at age 15 led the Mozambique national team to a gold medal in the African Games. She played for more than a decade professionally all over the world, but her exploits after retirement played a huge role in her selection to the hall of fame.
In 2014, she established the Clarisse Machanguana Foundation and it has helped tens of thousands of young people, especially young girls, escape poverty.
Located on the Indian Ocean, just across the Mozambique Channel from Madagascar, the country is poverty stricken and its population is exploding. A former Portuguese colony, it remains an underdeveloped country.
Manchanguana said that more than 50 percent of the girls in her home nation, starting at age 11, are forced into marriage. Only one percent of girls go to college and most drop out of school in the fifth grade.
Her foundation works with schools to encourage girls to stay enrolled in school and stay single until they are adults. It has taught courses in STEM skills – science, technology, engineering and math – to more than 6,000 young girls.
Tens of thousands of young women have participated in her basketball camps.
Theren Bullock Jr., the former American basketball player who heads the FIBA Foundation in Switzerland, said the selection committee was impressed with her work in empowering young women in Mozambique.
“The FIBA Hall of Fame focuses very much on individual and team accomplishments,” Bullock said. “We look for individuals who have allowed themselves to help develop the sport of basketball in their country, in their region and also represented their national team at the highest level.
“But separate to all of the accolades Clarisse Machanguana has had at the university level or club level, she has always been there to represent her nation, play for her national team and represent Mozambique.
“It is impossible to talk about Clarisse without talking about the social reach she has had in her entire career.
“She created a foundation, has been empowering the youth of her country and has used the platform of basketball to create social change throughout the African continent and throughout the world.
“She was put in this world to create change and she’s doing so marvelously. We’re just happy she chose basketball as her platform.”
This has been a particularly difficult year for Machanguana, whose home near Maputo, Mozambique was virtually washed away by floodwaters in January.
Machanguana said the process of repairing her home is an ongoing task.
“I am thrilled to be going to Berlin to be inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame,” she said. “It’s a humbling honor.”
Penicheiro, her long-time friend, will be there. They met while playing club basketball in Portugal and it was Ticha who convinced Machanguana to join her at ODU.
Penicheiro convinced Machanguana to begin a Go-Fund-Me fundraiser to help her rebuild her home. So far, nearly $36,000 of the goal of $40,000 has been donated.
CLICK HERE to donate to build Clarisse Machanguana rebuild her home
“Only someone like Clarisse will always see a silver lining, the positive side out of something so tragic,” Bullock said. “Nothing will allow her to stop. She will always push forward, she will always overcome any barrier put in front of her.”
Minium is ODU's Senior Executive Writer for Athletics. Contact him at hminium@odu.edu or follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram
To see past stories from Minium, CLICK HERE