Sister Jean Schmidt

Sports enthusiast Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, BVM (born 1919) played on her San Francisco high school girls basketball team. Following graduation, she entered a convent of the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. After earning college degrees, she spent 20 years as an elementary school teacher in California. Her teaching ministry continued in Chicago at Mundelein College and then at Loyola University. In 1994 when 75-year-old Sister Jean was ready to retire from Loyola, she was called to new type of ministry—chaplain for the men’s basketball team. It was a calling made in heaven! At the age of 99, Sister Jean became the media darling of the 2018 NCAA tournament when the Loyola Ramblers made an unexpected run to the Final Four.

Why this stop? The Red Line Loyola stop serves the students and staff of the Loyola University Lake Shore Campus.

Get involved—Cheering on the Ramblers might be how Sister Jean is best known but her justice work as a BVM nun is at the forefront of her life. The BVM nuns welcome all to join them in their justice advocacy work as well as in direct assistance programs for the homeless and the poor. Learn more.

Women's L Project Connection--Like Sister Jean, Ann Harnett became a BVM nun (after completing her professional baseball career).

Photo courtesy of Loyola University Chicago