Loyola's Sister Jean Passed Last Week. She Will Be Missed.

She last played competitive b-ball in a SF catholic high school while FDR was in office(!).

Sister Jean moved from California to teach at Mundelein College in Chicago in 1961. During the mid-1960s, she was active in the civil rights movement. She was hired by Loyola in 1991 when Mundelein was merged into Loyola. She had worked as the team chaplain for the Ramblers men's basketball team since 1994. . . . [That graphic at right is from the 2018 Final Four run.] Travel well; travel light Sister Jean. . . from the NYT, then:

. . .Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, who became a sports-world celebrity as the chaplain, No. 1 fan and informal scout for Loyola University Chicago basketball teams that played in a pair of N.C.A.A. national championship tournaments, died on Thursday. She was 106.

Her death was announced by the university, which did not say where she died.

Amid the hoopla accompanying March Madness, the story of a nun and her support for players some 80 years her junior made for an uplifting tale.

A member of the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, or B.V.M., Sister Jean, as she preferred to be known, was retiring from her job as a student adviser at Loyola in 1994 when the Rev. John Piderit, Loyola’s president at the time, asked if she would remain on campus to help athletes maintain good grades. She agreed and was named chaplain of the men’s basketball team soon after.

Players whose grades were merely average saw Sister Jean weekly to discuss their problems. One player said she helped him construct essays; another said she coached him on time management. . . .

While Sister Jean’s counseling work benefited Loyola students, it also buoyed her own spirits.

“These young people keep me young, even though I’m 101,” she said. “I consider myself young at heart. . . .”

She truly led. . . a wonderful life, and while I no longer consider myself a member of the Catholic Church (as I cannot abide by several of its core teachings), I say without reservation that many of the most important lessons I ever learned about life were taught to me in word and deed by Catholic nuns (Sisters of Charity) in St. Mary's grade school -- at over 10,000 feet elevation.

And I am forever grateful for that education. Onward!

नमस्ते