Loyola University’s Sister Jean dies at 106

CHICAGO — An unlikely March Madness star from Loyola University has died.

Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt was 106 years old.

Sister Jean was the team chaplain for the Loyola basketball team and was thrust into the spotlight when the team made the Final Four after several upsets in 2018, WMAQ reported.

She retired from the university earlier this year, citing health concerns, but the school said she still was an advisor over the past few months.

Loyola President Mark C. Reed said in a statement: “In many roles at Loyola over the course of more than 60 years, Sister Jean was an invaluable source of wisdom and grace for generations of students, faculty, and staff. While we feel grief and a sense of loss, there is great joy in her legacy. Her presence was a profound blessing for our entire community and her spirit abides in thousands of lives. In her honor, we can aspire to share with others the love and compassion Sister Jean shared with us.”

Sister Jean was a member of the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Sister Jean was born Dolores Bertha Schmidt to a Catholic family in 1919. She was the oldest of three sisters who received her calling when she was in third grade. After high school, she received instruction at the headquarters of the B.V.M. in Dubuque, Iowa, The New York Times reported.

She started teaching at Catholic schools around Los Angeles and got a master’s degree from Loyola Marymount Los Angeles. She became a teacher and an administrator at Mundelein College of Chicago in 1961. When Loyola Chicago took over Mundelein, she became an assistant dean and academic adviser.

In 1994, when she was about to retire from her student advisor job, the university president at the time, Father John Pidert, asked if she would stay on campus and make sure athletes kept their grades up. She was named the team’s chaplain.

Sister Jean not only led the team in pregame prayers, asking God to bless their hands for shooting and rebounding, but she also kept track of opponents’ strengths and weaknesses for the coaches and players, The New York Times reported.

She was such an integral part of the team that the sister had her own Loyola gym shoes with Sister on one and Jean on the other.

She said she would be “bopping around the sidelines in my Nikes and trifocals, standing 5 feet tall, I’m towered over by the athletes, but they treat me like a queen,” the Times reported.

It was during the 2018 run for the Final Four, the team’s secret weapon was revealed, and she gained a following from all over the world.

“In 2018, Loyola got on the map and everybody was happy,” she told ESPN in 2021. “I got letters from Germany and France, different kinds of people, saying, ‘You brought great joy to our country.’ Now we need something to make us happy even more than we did in 2018.”

In addition to all of the students she mentored, she leaves behind her sister-in-law and niece, the Times reported.