--- title: Sister Jean of Loyola Chicago Is a March Madness Viral Star description: Loyola Chicago's basketball's biggest fan is a 98-year-old nun named Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, who's been the team chaplain since 1994. canonical: https://time.com/5203219/sister-jean-dolores-schmidt-loyola-chicago-march-madness/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-03-16T16:24:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:51:27.301Z og:title: Why This 98-Year-Old Nun Is Already a March Madness MVP og:description: The sister did not come to play og:url: https://time.com/5203219/sister-jean-dolores-schmidt-loyola-chicago-march-madness/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc0877e49f7dd56a0/69892b094ee262452331137b/sister-jean-dolores-schmidt-loyola-chicago-march-madness.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: COLLEGE BASKETBALL RELIGIOUS LEADER og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why This 98-Year-Old Nun Is Already a March Madness MVP twitter:description: The sister did not come to play twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc0877e49f7dd56a0/69892b094ee262452331137b/sister-jean-dolores-schmidt-loyola-chicago-march-madness.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why This 98-Year-Old Nun Is Already the Real MVP of March Madness  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Mar 16, 2018 4:24 PM UTC  Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt greets players after the Loyola men's basketball team won on March 2, 2013, in Chicago, Illinois. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune/MCT via Getty Images) Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt greets players after the Loyola men's basketball team won on March 2, 2013, in Chicago, Illinois. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune/MCT via Getty Images)Chicago Tribune—MCT via Getty Images  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Mar 16, 2018 4:24 PM UTC The biggest college [basketball fan](http://time.com/4802935/rihanna-nba-finals/) during this year’s [March Madness](http://time.com/money/5198198/ncaa-march-madness-watch-live/) tournament is a 98-year-old nun by the name of Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, Loyola-Chicago’s team chaplain. Sister Jean Dolores, who was on hand to celebrate Loyola-Chicago’s buzzer beater victory over Miami, has been the basketball team’s chaplain since 1994, but has been a Ramblers fan for most of her life, witnessing the last time Loyola-Chicago won a tournament game, years ago. While the nun provides spiritual support and openly prays for victories for the team often asking the Higher Power to do his part so the team can do theirs, she’s also a bonafide basketball expert. In fact, she created a full scouting report (complete with full run-downs of the strengths and weaknesses of each player) that she presented to Coach Porter Moser on his first day in his position. According to the [_New York Times_](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/14/sports/ncaabasketball/loyola-ncaa-tournament-nun.html), she also sends individual emails to not only Moser, but his entire coaching staff and all of the players after every game. The sister has become somewhat of a beloved figure for Loyola-Chicago basketball fans; she had her own bobble head night in 2011 and she can often be spotted at games in her own custom pair of maroon and gold Nike kicks that have been customized with the words “Sister” on one foot and “Jean” on the other. See Sister Jean Dolores’ joy at Loyola-Chicago’s win below. > [](https://twitter.com/marchmadness/status/974397936116224000) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5203219/sister-jean-dolores-schmidt-loyola-chicago-march-madness/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5203219/sister-jean-dolores-schmidt-loyola-chicago-march-madness/"},"headline":"Why This 98-Year-Old Nun Is Already the Real MVP of March Madness","datePublished":"2018-03-16T16:24:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:51:27.301Z","description":"The sister is Loyola-Chicago's basketball team chaplain","url":"https://time.com/5203219/sister-jean-dolores-schmidt-loyola-chicago-march-madness/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc0877e49f7dd56a0/69892b094ee262452331137b/sister-jean-dolores-schmidt-loyola-chicago-march-madness.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc0877e49f7dd56a0/69892b094ee262452331137b/sister-jean-dolores-schmidt-loyola-chicago-march-madness.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"COLLEGE BASKETBALL RELIGIOUS LEADER","caption":"COLLEGE BASKETBALL RELIGIOUS LEADER","creditText":"Chicago Tribune—MCT via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5203219/sister-jean-dolores-schmidt-loyola-chicago-march-madness/","name":"Why This 98-Year-Old Nun Is Already the Real MVP of March Madness"}}]}] ```