Team draws inspiration from nun, 98

Loyola-Chicago’s biggest fan is the team chaplain who prays with the players before games and gives them scouting reports the next day.

So 98-year-old Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt was more thankful than shocked when Donte Ingram hit a last-second three-pointer Thursday to beat Miami in the Ramblers’ first NCAA Tournament game in 33 years.

Loyola-Chicago is coached by former University of Arkansas at Little Rock head coach Porter Moser.

“After the game, she sends a general email to the team,” Ingram said after the 64-62 firstround victory Thursday. “And then at the end of the email, it’ll be individualized. ‘Hey, Donte, you did this, you rebounded well tonight. Even though they were out there to get you, you still came through for the team.’”

The postgame feedback in those emails isn’t always positive, according to Schmidt. It’s individualized “on how they did, and whether it was good or whether they have to improve in certain parts,” she said.

Schmidt will lead the pregame prayer again today when 11thseeded Loyola plays No. 3 seed Tennessee looking for a repeat of its last NCAA trip. The Ramblers reached the Sweet 16 in 1985 before losing to Patrick Ewing and Georgetown.

Schmidt has been the team chaplain since the early 1990s.

“When we have home games, I say a prayer with all the fans, too, and pray for the opponents, too, that none of us get hurt and that the referees do a good job and all that kind of stuff,” Schmidt said.

Schmidt gets around in a wheelchair these days because of a broken hip that caused her to miss games this season — a rarity over nearly 25 years. She still found a way to follow the Ramblers.

“Where I was for rehab, I couldn’t get the picture so I watched play-by-play for every game I missed,” she said.

Ingram’s shot wasn’t exactly a Hail Mary, but it was from the March Madness logo several feet behind the three-point line. The Ramblers will choose to believe Schmidt had something to do with it going in.

“For her to be doing what she’s doing at her age, it’s amazing, and it’s inspiring,” guard Clayton Custer said. “And I think, I mean, I think her prayers definitely mean a little bit extra when she prays for us.”

AP/TONY GUTIERREZ Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, 98, (left) leads Loyola-Chicago in a team prayer before every game and gives each player a critique based on how well they played. Schmidt has been the Ramblers’ team chaplain since the early 1990s and rarely misses a game.