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Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, the beloved chaplain of the Loyola Chicago men’s basketball team, has died at 106.
Sister Jean retired from her position two weeks ago due to health problems, shortly after her birthday.
“In many roles at Loyola over more than 60 years, Sister Jean was 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)
“While we feel grief and 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 hope to share with others the love and compassion that Sister Jean shared with us.”
Sister Jean, born Dolores Bertha Schmidt on August 21, 1919 and later taking the name Sister Jean Dolores in 1937, became one of the most talked-about personalities during the 2018 NCAA Tournament, as Ramblers Cinderella’s run included a trip to the Final Four.
He was told that Sister Jean’s press conference at that NCAA tournament attracted more reporters than Tom Brady at the Super Bowl. His image 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 Missouri Valley Conference Tournament final at the Enterprise Center on March 6, 2022. (Jeff Curry/USA TODAY Sports)
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In 2023, he traveled to New York for the team’s first-round matchup in the Atlantic 10 Conference Tournament.
During that trip, he appeared in “Fox and friends” where he shared the three simple things he attributes to living a long and healthy life.
“Well, when people ask me that question I tell them that I eat well, I sleep well and, hopefully, I pray well,” he said at the time. “My basketball team keeps me young. All these young people 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. He witnessed the impact of the Great Depression, World War II and the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge, which he remembers crossing on foot when it opened in 1937.
Loyola University Chicago’s Sister Jean displays 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)
His religious vocation, he said, came at the age of 8. He was in third grade when he met a kind and cheerful teacher who belonged to the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Full of admiration, she prayed every day: “Dear God, help me understand what I must do, but please tell me that I must become a sister of BVM,” she recounts in her memoirs.
“I guess God heard me on that one,” he wrote.
