Loyola's Sister Jean Gets Push To Go On 'Ellen DeGeneres Show'

CHICAGO, IL — Any self-respecting Loyola University men's basketball fan knows about Sister Jean Dolores-Schmidt and the 98-year-old's deep love for her Ramblers and the sport. No. 11 Loyola's magical run into the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament this year has put the spotlight on Sister Jean, but one student wants to raise her profile even higher.

Sophomore Tanea Crawford started an online petition to get Sister Jean on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show." The petition began Saturday, following Loyola's dramatic upset over No. 3 Tennessee, 63-62, and it quickly met the initial goal of 500 signatures, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The new goal is 2,500, and the petition already has more than 1,745 signatures as of Monday morning.

Sister Jean has been the team's chaplain since 1994, and although this is Loyola's fourth appearance in the Sweet 16, it's the first time the Ramblers have made it while she has been chaplain. The last time the school played in the Sweet 16 was in 1985, and its last NCAA title was in 1963, when Loyola posted an unlikely 60-58 victory over Cincinnati, a two-time defending champion.

On campus, Sister Jean is a bit of a celebrity, delivering a prayer with the team before each game she's able to attend and even having her own bobblehead statue made and given away in 2011. An appearance on DeGeneres' show would certainly increase Sister Jean's visibility, which already has been soaring during the tournament. She has been featured in articles for ESPN, Sports Illustrated, The New York Times and other outlets, as well as been the subject of quite a few social media posts.

This isn't the first push Sister Jean has received to appear on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show." In 2013, the school suggested her for the program's "everyday hero" segment, student newspaper The Loyola Phoenix reported at the time.

“If I understand why they even did that, it’s because I spend so much time with the students," Sister Jean told the paper then. “I’m an ordinary person, I try to bring people to lead extraordinary lives, but I just consider myself to be very ordinary."

Plus, Sister Jean's a fan of the talk show host.

"If I get to talk to Ellen, she herself has done so much good for people in this world, and I don’t know that people know that," she said in 2013. "I would just like to thank her for the good that she does."

So how far did Loyola make it on Sister Jean's NCAA bracket? She actually had them picked to make it to the Sweet 16, but she has them losing in that round.

Loyola faces No. 7 Nevada at 6 p.m. Thursday, March 22.

Go to Change.org for the online petition to get Sister Jean Dolores-Schmidt on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show."

Sister Jean Dolores-Schmidt gets a hug from Loyola's Marques Townes after the Ramblers beat No. 3 Tennessee on Saturday, March 17. (Photo by Tom Pennington | Getty Images Sport | Getty Images)