By Audrey Elwood, Campus News Editor

Sister Jean, chaplain of Loyola University Chicago Basketball, died on Wednesday Oct. 9. She served over 60 years at Loyola University Chicago, in a variety of roles.

Born Jean Dolores Schmidt in 1919 in the greater San Francisco area, she joined the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Mary of Iowa in 1937. She graduated from Mount St. Mary’s College with a Bachelors in Arts, and Loyola Marymount University with a Master in Arts. After this, she taught at a variety of schools in the Chicago and California Area, before landing at Loyola University Chicago.

After retiring from her role as a student advisor in 1994, Reverend John Piderit, Loyola’s president, asked her to help the athletes maintain good grades. She helped with everything from essays to time management.

Her most famous role was chaplain of the Ramblers – Loyola  University Chicago Men’s Basketball team. Before every game, she would pray with the team, asking God to bless the hands that would shoot and rebound.

After every game, she would send an email to the whole team with personalized feedback for every player attached. She became a fixture of the Loyola University Chicago culture with Sister Jean bobblehead nights becoming a tradition and T-shirts with her motto “Work, Worship, Win” being in the student store. 

She rose to prominence outside of Loyola University Chicago, during the Men’s Basketball 2018 March Madness run. She wore custom sneakers with Loyola’s gold and crimson, “Sister” was on one shoe, and “Jean” the other. The Ramblers made it all the way to the Final Four, for the first time since 1964. 

When Loyola returned to March Madness in 2021, Sister Jean was yet again spotted on the sidelines. 

“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,” said Jean in an interview with ESPN.

Within her pregame prayer during the second round Loyola playoff game of 2021, she made an observation that would help the team win. She had studied the other team and recognized a “great opportunity to convert rebounds,” The eighth seed Ramblers beat the first seed University of Illinois Illini. The next game, they lost to the Oregon State University Beavers. 

Sister Jean wrote a memoir called “Wake up with a Purpose!: What I’ve Learned in My First 100 Years.” In it she wrote that her position with the Ramblers was “the most transformational and transcendent position.” 

“I remember watching Sister Jean in the 2018 Loyola University Chicago Playoff run, she really helped grow my interest in college basketball,” junior math and economics major Andrew Schmidt said. “It’s sad that she’s gone, but it’s evident that she’s lived a long and prosperous life.”  Sister Jean died at age 106, the official cause of death has not been announced. She is survived by her sister-in-law Maragret Schmidt, her nieces and nephews and by her fellow sisters at the Sisters of Charity.