Loyola announced his death Thursday night; no cause was announced.
A ubiquitous fixture at basketball games at the cozy North Side Chicago school long before the Ramblers men’s team captured the nation’s eyes, Sister Jean offered a variety of life lessons to fans and admirers.
Delivering welcome each day, he greeted every student he met.
In this March 15, 2018, file photo, Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, left, greets the Loyola Chicago basketball team as the Ramblers walk off the court after a victory over Miami in a first-round game of the NCAA college basketball tournament in Dallas.
“I just say good morning to everyone; I don’t care if they’re texting or have their phone to their ear,” he once told university president Dr. Jo Ann Rooney. “I say, ‘Good morning! Good morning!’ “It’s just a fun thing to do.”
As Loyola rattled off victory after victory in March 2018, the rest of the sports world fell in love with the California-born Catholic elder sitting happily alongside the Ramblers.
He continued his long-standing practice of providing Porter Moser, then the team’s coach, with opponent reports. Only now the rest of the nation knew the squad’s secret weapon.
A crowd of reporters and photographers flooded a meeting room at the Alamodome when, at 98, he gave a news conference from his wheelchair during the Final Four.
A photograph of Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, center, and her parents, hangs in the gallery of a museum dedicated to the now 103-year-old Catholic nun, at Loyola University on Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2023, in Chicago.
“Good morning,” the nun greeted, smiling at the army that had come to see her. When asked if she was ready, she expressed her joy. “Oh, you better believe it.”
Loyola ultimately lost that weekend to Michigan. The Ramblers had surpassed the projection of their biggest fans. In her group, Sister Jean chose the team that will lose in the Sweet 16.
The sister remained a fixture in Gentile Arena, the school’s gymnasium, after the magical Cinderella campaign. At each competition, she offered her signature pregame prayer to the crowds that filled the building.
When the Ramblers returned to the Dance during the pandemic-altered 2020-21 season, the fully vaccinated, 101-year-old Sister Jean headed to the Indiana bubble to get in on the action and cheer on her team. Loyola made noise again, knocking off a top-seeded Illinois team before failing in the Sweet 16.
AP Photo/Brynn Anderson
In this March 30, 2018 file photo, Loyola sister Jean Dolores Schmidt answers questions during a news conference for the NCAA college basketball Final Four tournament in San Antonio.
Sister Jean, an early riser, said she was tending to an overflowing email inbox.
And after every men’s basketball game, he sent Moser, who now runs men’s basketball at the University of Oklahoma, an email offering his thoughts on the battle.
“There’s no human being like her,” Moser told The Peoria Journal Star in 2017.
During her century on earth, the nun lived an expression preferred by her mother.
“My mom used to say,” Sister Jean once told Chicago Magazine, “it’s better to wear out than rust.”