As Loyola Prepares To Dance, Sister Jean Is Along For The Ride

CHICAGO — When Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt returned home from the Final Four three years ago at the age of 98, she wasn’t certain she would live to see another NCAA Tournament appearance by her beloved Loyola Ramblers.

But three years later, now at 101, the longtime chaplain for Loyola’s men’s basketball team is poised to cheer for another deep tournament run when the annual college basketball rite of spring begins on Friday in Indianapolis. Fully vaccinated and having passed 30 successful coronavirus tests with flying colors, Sister Jean has been approved to make the trip to watch her first in-person game in more than a year.

Official word of the trip didn’t arrive until Tuesday despite Sister Jean pleading with university officials, who then reached out to the NCAA on Sister Jean's behalf. As she waited, secret plans hatched by Loyola alumni took shape —determined to get the Ramblers’ most recognizable fan to Hinkle Fieldhouse in time for Friday’s tournament opener. One couple even joked they would kidnap Sister Jean and make sure she made her way safely down Interstate 65 and to Indianapolis, where the entire NCAA Tournament will be held this year.

Sister Jean, speaking to reporters by Zoom on Tuesday, acknowledged she wasn’t certain Tuesday’s announcement would ever arrive.

“I just waited for the day that they would say yes,” Sister Jean said during Tuesday’s 35-minute call, saying that the desire to make the trip has been “stirring in her heart” since the Ramblers earned a tournament berth with a Missouri Valley Tournament championship recently in St Louis.

Unlike 2018, when Sister Jean became an international celebrity during Loyola’s run to the national semifinals, the beloved nun won’t have her normal access to Loyola’s players and team during this year’s tournament. Because of ongoing COVID-19 restrictions and only a limited number of fans being allowed to attend this year’s tournament, Sister Jean will keep her distance when Loyola — seeded eighth in the Midwest Regional — begins tournament play against Georgia Tech.

As initial conversations took place at the university level about her safety should she be allowed to travel, Sister Jean made one promise after another to be on her best behavior. It wasn’t as if she was going to run onto the floor or cause any sort of disturbance, she said Tuesday. As far being around the players that she famously has emailed before and after games this season, that too — NCAA officials said — would not be allowed.

But along with all of the adjustments she has made during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, watching Loyola games from a distance this season has just become part of Sister Jean’s routine. Sister Jean has not been on Loyola’s Rogers Park campus since March 11, 2020 – four days after the Ramblers’ season ended in the MVC tournament.

Less than two weeks later, the entire NCAA Tournament was canceled by the pandemic. Sister Jean, who was an infant during the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918, has not returned to campus for more than a year. Until only recently, she lived under strict restrictions at the downtown senior living facility she now calls home.

She conducts most of her campus business over Zoom, email and phone. Her contact with Loyola’s players has been limited to a few video conferencing calls, pregame prayers which now take place over speaker phone and the emails that she continues to send to Loyola’s coaches and players before and after each games. Still, despite the separation that has come thanks to second global pandemic she has seen in her lifetime, Sister Jean feels connected to her favorite college basketball program.

Being away from the team she knows so well hasn’t been easy, she admits. This team – like the one that came up one victory short of playing for a national championship in 2018 – keeps her young. She misses the postgame hugs she would routinely receive as players leave the floor but appreciates the way she has connected with coach Porter Moser’s players.

“They do keep me young and they keep me informed of what’s happening,” Sister Jean said. “I learn new words all the time. Some of them are good, some not so good, but I learn them.”

The relationship between chaplain and players has become a mutual admiration society. After the Ramblers captured the MVC Tournament title in St. Louis, senior center Cameron Krutwig made sure to save a piece of the nets Loyola players cut down in celebration as a souvenir for Sister Jean.

Now, as the Ramblers prepare to face Georgia Tech on Friday and possibly an in-state showdown with the Midwest Regional’s No. 1 seed, Illinois, Sister Jean relishes another tournament opportunity for her beloved program. Sister Jean said Tuesday that she has projected the Ramblers as an Elite 8 team – a destination that would require a victory over the Illini should Loyola topple Georgia Tech on Friday.

Three years ago, Sister Jean picked Loyola for the Sweet 16, a ceiling that the Ramblers shattered with victories over Miami, Tennessee, Nevada and Kansas State before losing in the national semifinals against Michigan, 69-57.

As glad as Sister Jean is to be making the return trip, she is more excited for Loyola’s players, many of whom never expected their college basketball journey to take the twists and turns it has.

“I keep saying to people, ‘I want to go not because of myself – I want to go because of the team,’” Sister Jean said. “I want to be present for them. I want to be present for Porter (Moser) and I want to be present for Loyola.

“We have to remember what happened in 2018. Loyola got on the map and everybody was happy …I hope we do the same thing now because now, we need something to make us happy – even more we did in 2018.”

At least on Tuesday, no one is happier than a certain 101-year-old chaplain.