Sister Jean Will Be Given 'Extended Break' After Loyola's Cinderella Run Ends

Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt became a national celebrity as the team chaplain for the Loyola-Chicago Ramblers during their Cinderella run to the Final Four in the 2018 NCAA men's basketball tournament, but she is taking a step out of the spotlight after Saturday's loss.

"She's done for a while," Ryan Haley, assistant director of athletic communications for Loyola-Chicago, said, per Josh Peter of USA Today. "We're going to give her a little bit of an extended break from everything ... and let her kind of catch her breath."

Sister Jean is 98 years old, but that didn't stop her from attending all of Loyola-Chicago's tournament games and becoming a highlight of many of the television broadcasts.

Peter noted "dozens of reporters crammed into a room for a specially scheduled interview session with Sister Jean" on Friday during media sessions for the Final Four.

While Saturday's 69-57 loss to Michigan didn't end the way Sister Jean would have wanted, Loyola-Chicago became the darlings of the tournament by emerging from the South Regional as a No. 11 seed.