Part of me thought that Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt was going to live forever. A Catholic nun who became a mainstay at Loyola University Chicago basketball games, Sister Jean died Thursday at the incredible age of 106, months after she slipped from her wheelchair and battled through a cold that kept her from the sidelines of Ramblers’ games this past spring. 

Born and raised in the Eureka Valley neighborhood of San Francisco nine months after the end of the First World War, Sister Jean always loved basketball. As a teenager, she played for the St. Paul’s High School basketball team before entering the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Iowa after graduating in 1937.

Over the course of the next few decades, Sister Jean dedicated herself to the Church and to education, teaching at a number of Catholic schools in California and inspiring several students to enter religious life. In 1961, Sister Jean moved to Chicago where she took an opportunity teaching at Mundelein College, a private Roman Catholic women’s college that later merged with Loyola University Chicago. 

“She saw God present in all that surrounded her and trusted in His goodness,” LaDonna Manternach, president of the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, said following the news of Sister Jean’s death.

In 1994, three years after Mundelein integrated with Loyola Chicago, Sister Jean was asked to help the basketball players boost their grades, a role she dubbed the “booster shooter.” Later that year, Sister Jean was named the chaplain of the basketball team, a position she called “the most transformational and transcendent” of her life. It was there, as the spiritual center of the men’s basketball program, where Sister Jean became first a local favorite and later a national celebrity. 

When Loyola Chicago made an improbable run to the Final Four in the 2018 edition of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, it was Sister Jean as much as any of the Rambler players who became an overnight superstar. Then 98 years young, Sister Jean was sitting courtside as the Ramblers upset the Miami Hurricanes and Tennessee Volunteers in consecutive games, marking the school’s first appearance in the tournament’s Sweet 16 in more than 30 years. 

When Clayton Custer’s jumper softly bounced into the hoop in the final seconds of Loyola’s Second Round win vs. Tennessee, the cameras couldn’t help but find Sister Jean among the chaos. It was like that the entire tournament. Wherever the Ramblers went, so too did Sister Jean and the American viewing public simply couldn’t get enough. Amid all the fanfare, Sister Jean always credited God for helping the team perform at its best. 

“She is there before every game,” said Loyola star Donte Ingram after he scored a last-second, go-ahead three-pointer against Miami in the tournament’s opening game. “She’s saying a prayer before every game. After the game, she sends a general email to the team. And then at the end of the email, it’ll be individualized: ‘Hey, Donte, you did this, you rebounded well tonight. Even though they were out there to get you, you still came through for the team.’ She’s just so special, her spirit. She’s just so bright, and she means so much to the city of Chicago and Loyola obviously and the team.”

Perhaps the most indelible aspect of her spirit, for the basketball team at least, was the positive outlook she carried with her no matter the results. When the Ramblers inevitably lost in the Final Four during that miracle Cinderella run through March Madness in 2018, Sister Jean didn’t dream about what could’ve been, she celebrated what had occurred.

“Sister Jean just said it was a great season,” forward Aundre Jackson said after the loss. “She was so happy to be on this run with us and we should keep our heads high and be happy with what we accomplished.”

As a longtime fan of the Virginia Commonwealth University Rams, who similarly had a miracle Final Four run in the 2011 edition of March Madness, I’ve mostly known Loyola Chicago as an opponent. The Ramblers joined the Atlantic 10 conference that VCU calls home in 2022, and they have been a formidable foe ever since. But today, the Ramblers are not an opponent. Today, the Ramblers are all of us. We share in the grief and celebration of a woman, a school, and community who centered the grace of God and the beauty of basketball into each of our homes that special spring in 2018 and beyond. 

“Sister Jean was an invaluable source of wisdom and grace for generations of students, faculty, and staff,” Loyola President Mark C. Reed after news of Sister Jean’s passing broke late Thursday. “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.

When recently asked what kept her going after a century of life, Sister Jean didn’t hesitate. “Praying to God and being with people, that’s what I love the most.” They say you die twice in this life. The first is when your physical body gives way, the second when the last person says your name. As long as I’m alive, and I know this is true for tens of thousands of American basketball fans, Sister Jean will be alive with us, in our hearts for many, many years to come. We will miss you, Sister Jean. Thanks for the incredible memories. Basketball is but a game without the transcendent spirit of its fans. And Sister Jean was one its greatest fans. Rest in peace, Sister Jean.

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