When the Loyola University Ramblers men’s basketball team made it into the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1985, the tight-knit team from Chicago was thrust into the national spotlight. After the team won its first game against the Miami Hurricanes on March 15, that spotlight found their chaplain BVM Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt. The ,98-year-old nun became everyone’s favorite fan, making an appearance on Good Morning America and fielding interviews from national media outlets such as ESPN and the New York Times, to name a few. Her story has been shared across social media and picked up by nearly every major news outlet around the country. Her easy smile and natural energy and enthusiasm have captivated people worldwide. She’s also brought a little bit of God into the national tournament, sharing her prayers for and with the team. While the world’s media is captivated by the story of this petite nun, in Chicago, she has been a living legend for quite some time. Until she was sidelined late last year with hip surgery following a fall, the 5-foot nun could be seen at every home game of the men’s team. She’s most often decked out in Loyola gear and wearing her trademark maroon Nike tennis shoes with gold laces that have “Sister” stitched onto the heel of her left shoe and “Jean” stitched on the heel of her right shoe. After rehab, Sister Jean moved back into the dorms, where she lives alongside the students and serves as a chaplain. Born in San Francisco in 1919, Sister Jean played basketball growing up and, in 1937, joined the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Iowa. She was 18. She taught in elementary schools and also volunteered as a coach in Los Angeles public schools when she was teaching in that city. In 1961, Sister Jean took a teaching job at Mundelein College, the women’s college located next to Loyola in Rogers Park. Mundelein merged with Loyola in 1991 and just a few years later, in 1994, Sister Jean became chaplain of the men’s basketball team.
Tips for enriching the Advent experience Sometimes the meaning of Advent can get lost in the parties and preparations for Christmas, but it is a time to draw closer to Christ in the quiet, according to Kevin Pease, director of the Scripture School at the Institute for Pastoral Studies at Loyola University Chicago.
Loyola University facilitates another Building Bridges discussion with Pope Francis Twelve university students from India, Pakistan and Nepal met online with Pope Francis in the third installment of Building Bridges, an effort initiated by Loyola University Chicago in 2022 to bring university students together to practice synodality.
Loyola University celebrates Sister Jean’s 104th birthday Loyola University Chicago celebrated the 104th birthday of BVM Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt at its annual Water Tower Campus block party Aug. 31, an event that included a line of students, alumni and other well-wishers waiting for a photo with her as well as an opportunity for all the attendees to sing “Happy Birthday” to Loyola’s biggest, and perhaps most unlikely, celebrity.