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Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, beloved chaplain of the Loyola Chicago men’s basketball team, has died at 106.
Sister Jean retired two weeks ago due to health problems, shortly after her birthday.
“In many roles at Loyola over more than 60 years, Sister Jean has been an invaluable source of wisdom and grace to generations of students, faculty and staff,” Loyola President Mark C. Reed said in a statement.
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Loyola Ramblers team chaplain Sister Jean Dolores-Schmidt celebrates at Gentile Arena after Loyola Chicago advanced to the Final Four. (Patrick Gorski/USA TODAY Sports)
“Even though we feel grief and a sense of loss, there is great joy in his legacy,” Reed said. “Her presence was a profound blessing to our entire community and her spirit lives on in thousands of lives. In her honor, we can aspire to share with others the love and compassion that Sister Jean shared with us.”
Sister Jean — born Dolores Bertha Schmidt on Aug. 21, 1919, then taking the name Sister Jean Dolores in 1937 — became one of the most talked about personalities during the 2018 NCAA Tournament, as the Ramblers Cinderella run included a trip to the Final Four.
Sister Jean’s press conference at that NCAA tournament, she was told, attracted more reporters than Tom Brady at the Super Bowl. His portrait has appeared on everything from socks to a Lego statue in his gallery at the Loyola Art Museum.
Loyola Ramblers fan Sister Jean watches as the Ramblers receive the Missouri Valley Trophy after defeating the Drake Bulldogs in the final of the Missouri Valley Conference tournament at the Enterprise Center on March 6, 2022. (Jeff Curry/USA TODAY Sports)
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In 2023, she traveled to New York for the team’s first round game in the Atlantic 10 conference tournament.
During this trip, she appeared on “Fox and friends”, where she shared the three simple things she attributes to living a long and healthy life.
“Well, when they ask me that question, I tell people I eat well, sleep well and hopefully pray well,” she said at the time. “My basketball team keeps me young. All these kids keep me young at heart. I can’t walk, but they keep me young at heart.”
Born in San Francisco, Sister Jean grew up in a devoutly Catholic family. She witnessed the impact of the Great Depression, World War II and the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge, which she remembers crossing on foot when it opened in 1937.
Sister Jean, of Loyola University Chicago, shows off the NCAA Final Four ring she received before an NCAA college basketball game between Loyola Chicago and Nevada in Chicago, Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2018. (AP Photo/Matt Marton)
Her religious vocation, she says, came to her at the age of 8. She was in third grade when she met a kind and cheerful teacher who belonged to the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Overflowing with admiration, she prayed every day: “Dear God, help me understand what I should do, but please tell me that I should become a BVM sister,” she recounts in her memoir.
“I guess God listened to me on this,” she wrote.
