Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, beloved Loyola University team chaplain, dies aged 106

Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, the beloved chaplain for Loyola University Chicago men’s basketball team, died on Thursday at the age of 106, the university announced. Schmidt became a beloved figure in US college basketball seven years ago when she captured national attention by supporting her team as they reached the final four of the NCAA tournament in 2018 – their first appearance at that stage since 1963. Mourning Schmidt’s death, Loyola’s president, Mark Reed, said: “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,” Reed added. Born as Dolores Bertha Schmidt in San Francisco on 21 August 1919, Schmidt became Sister Jean Dolores when she joined the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1937. After teaching at various Catholic schools in Chicago and California, Schmidt joined the staff at Loyola-Chicago in 1991. Related: Sister Jean: how a 98-year-old nun became the hottest property in basketball Three years later, she became an academic adviser to the men’s basketball team after she was asked to help student players improve their grades. Calling herself “the booster shooter”, Schmidt eventually became the team’s chaplain, offering both spiritual guidance and practical game advice to students. “She’s like another coach,” then guard Donte Ingram told the Chicago Tribune in 2018, adding: “[In my first ever game], it caught me off guard. I thought she was just going to pray. She prayed, but then she starts saying, ‘You’ve got to box out and watch out for 23.’” Describing that role in her 2023 memoir, Wake Up with Purpose! What I’ve Learned in My First Hundred Years, Schmidt, whose motto was “worship, work, win,” said it became “the most transformational and transcendent position” of her life. “Sports are very important because they help develop life skills. And during those life skills, you’re also talking about faith and purpose,” she said in her memoir. Throughout her life, Schmidt received numerous honors and recognitions, including her induction into the Loyola University Chicago Athletics Hall of Fame in 2017, an apostolic blessing from the late Pope Francis on her 100th birthday, and official proclamations from the Illinois governor, JB Pritzker, in 2022 and Joe Biden in 2024.