Beloved March Madness icon Sister Jean dies at 106

[ad_1] Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, the workforce chaplain for the Loyola College Chicago basketball workforce who turned a nationwide superstar throughout the faculty's 2018 underdog March Insanity run, has died at 106.

The college confirmed her dying in a press release on social media.

"This can be a super lack of somebody who touched the lives of so many individuals. We recognize everybody’s ideas & prayers throughout this troublesome time," the college mentioned in a press release.

Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt turns 100 on Wednesday, Aug. 21,2019. Sister Jean is stunned after she's given an NCAA Ultimate 4 ring earlier than the Loyola Ramblers play the Nevada Wolf Pack in 2018 at Gentile Enviornment in Chicago, Ailing.

(Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune/Tribune Information Service through Getty Photos)

In an announcement final month, only a month after her 106th birthday, the college mentioned Schmidt was retiring and stepping again from official duties on the faculty.

In a letter to college students and different members of the college group despatched on her birthday in August, Schmidt mentioned she was unable to journey to campus to have fun on account of a "unhealthy summer season chilly and different well being points."

She wrote, "That makes me very unhappy, however you possibly can nonetheless have fun," and inspired college students to "make new pals. Discuss to your outdated pals. Get pleasure from your move-in and your preparations for sophistication."

Schmidt turned a nationally acknowledged determine throughout the 2018 NCAA males's basketball event, when Loyola College Chicago, which entered March Insanity as an 11-seed, reached the Ultimate 4 in San Antonio, Texas.

Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt celebrates with head coach Porter Moser of the Loyola Ramblers after defeating the Kansas State Wildcats throughout the 2018 NCAA Males's Basketball Match South Regional at Philips Enviornment on March 24, 2018 in Atlanta, Georgia. Loyola defeated Kansas State 78-62.

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Schmidt's presence courtside -- all the time adorned within the workforce's maroon and gold colours -- and her enthusiastic cheering on of the workforce drew consideration from followers and nationwide broadcasters.

"In lots of roles at Loyola over the course of greater than 60 years, Sister Jean was a useful supply of knowledge and charm for generations of scholars, college, and employees,” Loyola President Mark C. Reed mentioned in a press release. "Whereas we really feel grief and a way of loss, there may be nice pleasure in her legacy. Her presence was a profound blessing for our complete group and her spirit abides in 1000's of lives. In her honor, we will aspire to share with others the love and compassion Sister Jean shared with us."

Sister Jean Dolores-Schmidt celebrates after the Loyola Ramblers beat the Tennessee Volunteers 63-62 within the second spherical of the 2018 NCAA Match on the American Airways Middle on March 17, 2018 in Dallas, Texas.

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Born Dolores Bertha Schmidt in San Francisco on Aug. 21, 1919, she joined the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1937, taking the title Sister Jean Dolores, based on a college obituary.

A basketball participant in her youth, Schmidt later turned a nun, then a grade faculty trainer, and began ladies' sports activities applications earlier than her time on the school basketball sidelines.

Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt says her pre-game prayer for the Loyola males's basketball workforce on March 2, 2013, in Chicago, Illinois.

(Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune/Tribune Information Service through Getty Photos)

She got here to the college's Lake Shore campus in 1961 to show at Mundelein Faculty, which affiliated with Loyola in 1991.

She first turned a tutorial adviser for the lads's basketball workforce in 1994 and later turned the workforce chaplain.

She launched a memoir in 2023, "Wake Up with Objective!: What I’ve Realized in My First Hundred Years."

In a 2023 interview with ABC Information, Schmidt mentioned, "I believe sports activities [are] crucial as a result of they assist develop life expertise, and through these life expertise you are additionally speaking about faiths and function."