Sister Jean and her spirit of encouragement honored in documentary "The Cinderella Nun"

The late Sister Jean has been honored with T-shirts, socks, and bobbleheads — and now her spirit lives on with a new documentary.

Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, who became world-famous as the chaplain and biggest fan of the Loyola University Ramblers men's basketball team, died Oct. 9, 2025, at the age of 106.

"The Cinderella Nun" tells Sister Jean's story as many may have never heard it before.

In particular, director T.J. Berden said Sister Jean's passion for sports came very early in her life.

"Sports always played this incredible part into her life since she was 5 or 6, being taught by the nuns in San Francisco. They taught her to pray for the wins for Notre Dame at the time," said Berden. "She went on to be a young teaching professional in North Hollywood. She taught Bob Hope's children, and she was encouraged to lead sports programs at those schools. She taught basketball, volleyball, even yo-yo at the time, so that thread kind of led her all the way to the chaplaincy at the Loyola men's basketball program."

While teaching on weekdays in the Los Angeles area, Sister Jean pursued a college education — taking classes on Saturdays and during the summer. She earned a bachelor's degree in English at Mount Saint Mary's College, now University, and a master's degree at Loyola University of Los Angeles, now Loyola Marymount.

After completing her master's degree, Sister Jean moved to Chicago and began teaching college courses at Mundelein College in 1961. She was named acting dean of Mundelein College in 1970, having already served as associate dean and director of summer sessions, Loyola said.

Sister Jean served continued teaching and serving in several other administrative positions at the all-women's Mundelein College, until the school merged with Loyola University Chicago in 1991. At that point, Sister Jean became an assistant dean and academic advisor at Loyola.

In 1994, Sister Jean was 75 and ready to retire, Loyola said. But she had a new calling to help student athletes maintain their grades and thus keep up their eligibility. She soon became chaplain of the men's basketball team, offering pregame prayers and becoming crucial to the team's success.

In 2018, Sister Jean was catapulted to international celebrity during the Ramblers' Cinderella Final Four run. They won the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament to appear in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1985 — and the Final Four for the first time since 1963.

As so many remember fondly, Sister Jean became a star along with the team. 

Berden said he and his colleagues were able to show Sister Jean a clip from the film before she died. He said Sister Jean was always encouraging people to have a dream and aim high.

"She thought dreaming was an essential part of a person's development," Berden said. "I think she always had a dream, and she told us — it was funny, she was like listening, hearing, remembering the stories from her life and from the 2018 run, and she told us, 'You've got to go for the Oscar, and even if you don't get there, at least you can give it a shot.'"

Berden said the film shows Sister Jean talking to several former students from Mundelein College and Loyola, and noted that she encouraged all those students to go for dreams throughout her whole career — which spanned 70 to 80 years.

The trailer for the film also shows Sister Jean talking to Steve Kerr, a star of the last three 1990s-era NBA champion Bulls teams led by Michael Jordan, and for the past 11 years, head coach of the four-time NBA champion Golden State Warriors. She gives Kerr credit for the success of those Bulls teams that many may not.

"I always tell our team — if Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen were not on the same team as you, you would be number one, because you were always the one who rescued them," Sister Jean tells Kerr in the documentary.

Berden co-directed and produced "The Cinderella Nun" with Dave Kang.

Berden said he and his team have held friend-raising and fundraising screenings of "The Cinderella Nun" are being held throughout the Chicago area and beyond, with one still planned in Wilmette.

Anyone interested can sign up on the website for the film.