Loyola Chicago soaks up rare chance in spotlight
Ramblers, coach and Sister Jean become darlings of tournament
CHICAGO — The black-and-white photo on the back wall of his office serves as a constant reminder and inspiration for Loyola-Chicago coach Porter Moser.
Les Hunter, Jerry Harkness and John Egan are standing with the 1963 NCAA championship trophy, the net draped over it. Coach George Ireland has his right arm extended in front as he shakes hands with someone whose face is not in the picture.
Hard to believe the photo was in a closet, yet that’s where Moser found it a few days after he got the job seven years ago. There was another photo of the championship celebration in Chicago.
“I’ve had them both in there as a reminder of just where I wanted this thing to go,” he said. “This is what you want. I saw the excitement of the people in the streets. I saw them holding a national championship trophy.”
Everything he envisioned is playing out. A captivating Final Four
Final Four
Saturday, San Antonio TV: TBS run has made a celebrity of a 98-year-old nun and shined a light on a program that went mostly unnoticed for decades.
With Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt by their side, the Ramblers will face Michigan in the national semifinals in San Antonio on Saturday. It’s the first trip to the Final Four for Loyola since that1963 team with four black starters helped break down racial barriers.
The Ramblers were never ranked in the AP poll. They needed a few last-second prayers, winning their first three tournament games by a total of four points, before easily handling Kansas State in the South regional final.
That made them the fourth No. 11 seed to get to the Final Four. And now, the Ramblers (32-5) will try to do what LSU (1986), George Mason (2006) and VCU (2011) could not — advance past the semifinals.
Take out the Wolverines, knock off the Villanova-Kansas winner and Loyola becomes the lowest seed to win it all. Villanova with a No. 8 beat Georgetown for the championship in 1985. But whether Loyola can pull out another historic title victory or not, it has been quite a run.
While the other three teams in the Final Four are no strangers to playing deep in the NCAA, Ramblers fans aren’t used to scrambling for Final Four tickets. Their school hadn’t even made the tournament since Patrick Ewing’s Hoyas knocked them out in the 1985 Sweet 16.
“It is kind of strange,” said Jessica Vera, who earned her nursing degree from Loyola last year. “But it is nice.”
She and a friend were planning to drive to San Antonio on Wednesday. Though she’s watched the Ramblers on TV, this will actually be the first game she attends this season.
Loyola figures to have a large cheering section in the stadium and in front of televisions. After all, the Ramblers and Sister Jean are the darlings of the tournament.