On the occasion of her 104th birthday, collegiate basketball legend Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt waved to the crowd and threw out the first pitch at a game between the Chicago Cubs and the Chicago White Sox on Monday. She did it with a huge grin on her face.
The day after tomorrow, I’m going to have Tommy John’s. “God bless,” the sports-obsessed nun who goes by the moniker “Sister Jean” joked about something in a tweet on Tuesday. Sister Jean attached a video of her presentation from the previous week to her tweet and shared it with the world.
Sister Jean giggled as she warmed up the baseball by throwing it back and forth between both of her hands before winding up her right arm with two large revolutions. She followed it up by throwing the ball to the catcher underhand, which was met with raucous ovation from the Wrigley Field crowd.
The commentators for the Chicago Cubs made a joke that she was going to throw the ball 104 miles per hour to celebrate her birthday. They also referred to her presence as “an inspiration” for both the spectators and the home club, who were competing against the Milwaukee Brewers at the time.
When people ask me about Sister Jean, I always tell them that she has a sense of humor that is on another level. Marsha Frese, who coaches the women’s basketball team at Loyola-Chicago, sent a tweet in which she re-shared the video.
Sister Jean initially came to the public’s attention when she cheered for the Loyola-Chicago men’s basketball team in 2018, when they made it all the way to the Final Four despite being considered one of the nation’s worst teams. When her school made it to the Sweet 16 of the March Madness tournament in 2021, she once again became the tournament’s most popular player.
Since 1994, Sister Jean has been the chaplain for the Loyola University Chicago Ramblers. Prior to that, she was a member of the Loyola-Chicago faculty for three years.
According to the institution, Sister Jean has been an essential component of the community ever since the early 1990s. She can often be seen on campus welcoming students and at sporting events, either cheering on teams from the bleachers or offering a prayer in the huddle before a competition starts.
Sister Jean discussed the process of writing her book, titled Wake Up with Purpose, with PEOPLE back in December of last year.
She said, “That’s what I do first thing in the morning.”
Sister Jean said, “Everything I do with the young men is done in an honest manner.” “I believe it’s sincere on their part, and I believe it to be sincere on my part.”
