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Sisters of Sister Jean Embrace Her Loyola Team and Marvel at Her Fame

DUBUQUE, Iowa — A former mayor of this town lives here on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River, with about 180 other retired members of the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Several other residents were college presidents, including one who was appointed by President Nixon to a White House task force on women’s rights and responsibilities.

Now these nuns, the B.V.M.s, as they like to be called, have a college basketball celebrity in their midst, too, if only in spirit and bobblehead form: Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, the 98-year-old chaplain for the Loyola-Chicago men’s team, an 11th seed that pulled off two upsets last week to advance to the round of 16 in the N.