Sister Jean is on her way back to March Madness.
Loyola-Chicago confirmed Tuesday that Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, the 101-year-old chaplain for the school’s basketball team, will be Friday when the Ramblers open the NCAA Tournament against Georgia Tech in Indianapolis. The Ramblers won the Missouri Valley Conference Championship and are number 8 in the Midwest region.
Sister Jean, who became an international celebrity during Loyola-Chicago’s run-up to the Final Four in 2018, has not attended games since the coronavirus pandemic began. She held pregame prayers virtually throughout the season, but stayed in a senior independent apartment in downtown Chicago.
Sister Jean will attend Friday’s game at Hinkle Fieldhouse, but has no direct contact with the team. She noted that if the parents of the players can not communicate with them, neither should they. Sister Jean will have a nurse with her and help her security guide her from a hotel in Indianapolis to the game. She said there was ‘no danger’ to her attending the match, but she would follow all guidelines.
“What they wanted to do was make sure all the safety factors were taken into account,” Sister Jean said during a video conference with reporters on Tuesday. “Sometimes people who have not been to the games or the NCAA or even March Madness, they do not know exactly what is going on. Sometimes they think it’s like a teenage concert, where everyone is going to surround me and maybe not. have any breathing space.
“If I’m not supposed to go to court, I will not go. And I will not cause any disturbance.”
Sister Jean wanted to attend the tournament for weeks and worked hard until she got approval at the school.
“I had other offers from people at the university,” she said. “One alumni wrote and told me that her husband was willing to chase me down. Another person told me she was going to sneak me out of college, and another couple said they wanted to kidnap me and Loyola will have to look for me. “
Sister Jean has already filled in a bracket, but said she will change it before the tournament starts. She noted how several well-known teams were not included: ‘I do not see Kentucky a place’, while acknowledging the new teams that made the field of 68.
She’s not a fan of Loyola’s draw, especially not a possible second-round pick with the leading Illinois.
“It amazes me that they put together two Illinois schools to work against each other rather than support each other,” she said.
Despite the difficult road, Sister Jean Loyola-Chicago commits to the Elite Eight. In 2016, she pushed the Ramblers to the Sweet 16. She did not expect to attend another NCAA tournament to see the Ramblers.
Sister Jean has not been on Loyola’s campus since March 11, 2020, when the pandemic hit. She kept in close contact with coach Porter Moser and the players through phone and email, but said it was very difficult to watch from her apartment.
“These young people keep me young, even though I’m 101, I consider myself young at heart,” she said.
Sister Jean also added: “In 2018, Loyola came on the map and everyone was happy. We also made people happy. I received letters from Germany and France, different kinds of people, and said: ‘You have great joy in us brought ashore. ‘ Now we need something to make us even happier than in 2018. ‘
Born August 21, 1919, Sister Jean joined the charity sister of the Virgin Mary Monastery in Iowa after completing high school. She joined the Loyola-Chicago staff in 1991 and has served as a basketball team chaplain since 1994.