CHICAGO (RNS) — Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, chaplain of the Loyola University Chicago men’s basketball team and unlikely international celebrity, died last Thursday (Oct. 9) at age 106, according to university officials. The university did not explicitly name where or how she died.
Sister Jean retired from her role at the university in August due to health complications, although she stayed on as an adviser in the final months of her life. The Loyola Ramblers, and Sister Jean, rose to national prominence as underdog darlings during the school’s historic 2018 run, when the team scored more than one buzzer-beating shot to win a game. Clips from that time show Sister Jean clapping her hands as she cheered on from the sidelines in her wheelchair. The team ended their March Madness basketball dream in a loss to the University of Michigan.
Before Sister Jean became a religious sister, her name was Dolores Bertha Schmidt. She was born in 1919 and grew up in a devout Catholic family in San Francisco, California. In her memoir “Wake Up with Purpose! What I’ve Learned in My First Hundred Years,” Sister Jean talked about maintaining a youthful spirit and playing intramural basketball just as the sport was becoming popular for women and girls. She recounted how when she was just 10 years old, she knew she wanted to become a religious sister.
“I would pray in the morning, and I would ask God, I would say, please help me know what you want me to do, but tell me you want me to be a BVM sister,” Schmidt said during a 2022 interview.
The BVM Sisters are a nickname for the religious order the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
When Schmidt graduated from high school, she indeed joined the BVM sisters. As a member of that order, Sister Jean spent many years teaching at Mundelein College for Women. The school was founded by the BVM sisters in 1930 on the north side of Chicago. The college became part of Loyola Chicago in 1991.
FILE – Loyola-Chicago basketball chaplain Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, center, poses with fans for a photo before the first half of a regional final NCAA college basketball tournament game, Saturday, March 24, 2018, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Later in the 1990s, the university’s president offered Sister Jean a job helping student athletes maintain their grades for eligibility. That position eventually evolved into her chaplaincy of the men’s basketball team. Students whose grades were falling or were simply average came to visit Sister Jean for counsel.
Sister Jean used these one-on-one sessions to tell players about the importance of a good sense of humor and hard work. Tom Welch joined Loyola’s Ramblers in 2019 and said that what he admired most about Sister Jean, who was almost 100 at the time, was her willpower.
“Sometimes as a student athlete, you struggle with motivation to get out of bed, get to class, go to practice, you know, kind of give it your all at everything you do in a day,” Welch said. “If she can do it, there’s no reason I can’t.”
Welch added that it was impressive to watch Sister Jean demonstrate her basketball knowledge by concocting game plans and scouting teams they were playing. It was this knowledge of basketball, her friendliness with students and the Loyola men’s basketball team making it to the NCAA’s Final Four tournament in 2018 — for the first time in 32 years — that led to Sister Jean’s rise to fame in her late 90s.
In her memoir, Sister Jean talked about the importance of setting aside daily quiet time and fostering a spirit of forgiveness. While she regarded religious life as her primary calling, basketball was a main focus and passion of hers.
FILE – Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, the Loyola University men’s basketball chaplain and school celebrity, sits for a portrait in The Joseph J. Gentile Arena, on Monday, Jan. 23, 2023, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski)
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Bill Burns, a former Loyola athletic director, was particularly struck by the way Sister Jean faithfully watched games from home and kept in touch with the Ramblers during the COVID-19 pandemic. She would regularly call players and send them encouraging emails.
“For somebody that’s 80 years older than those guys, to still be able to maintain that relationship with them and have to adjust on the fly and do it in some ways technologically was pretty impressive,” Burns said.
Sister Jean remained a campus celebrity and a Chicago icon because of her dedication to education, her camaraderie with students and her love of college basketball. She had an office on the main floor of Loyola’s Damen Student Center. Sister Jean would keep the door open so students could drop in and chat with her.
Sister Jean said her relationship with God was always her first priority. She said that while she loved her life, she was sad that many of her friends and family died long before she did. She channeled many of her prayers into one wish.
“When I die, I want to go to heaven, and I want my friends to be there, too,” Sister Jean said in 2022.
In 2017, Sister Jean was inducted into the Loyola Ramblers Athletic Hall of Fame. The school erected a memorial for her outside the train stop near campus that reads, “Home of the world-famous Sister Jean.”