Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt reached peak TV fame when the Loyola University Chicago Ramblers became the Cinderella story at last year's NCAA basketball tournament.
Fans grew accustomed to seeing the nun, who is the team's chaplain, cheering from the sidelines in her wheelchair.
The Ramblers' biggest fan turned 100 on Wednesday, celebrating with cake and songs, according to the university. The university president and students celebrated with her, and local politicians cheered her on as she blew out the candles on her massive cake.
Sister Jean said she enjoys coming on campus and saying hello to each person she sees each morning, she told the university's president in a video posted for her birthday.
"That's being a person for others by just being yourself," Sister Jean said in the video. "I tell students that—you'll see people that you admire, you can do some of the things they do, but you have to be yourself. God made you the person who you are."
Head men's basketball coach Porter Moser celebrated Sister Jean with a birthday message on Twitter.
"No one has more energy, passion and love than you! You truly are the heart and soul of the #Ramblers! We love you!" Moser wrote on Twitter.
Loyola is honoring the nun by raising money for a $100,000 endowment fund for student athletic excellence.
The campus is also celebrating Sister Jean's birthday at the Mass of the Holy Spirit on Sunday at the university's arena, where the men's and women's basketball teams play.
LEGOLAND Discovery Center Chicago paid Sister Jean tribute by building a miniature likeness of her out of Legos. The mini-Sister Jean even has glasses and a striped scarf in Loyola's colors, just like her.
The discovery center also donated 100 tickets to Misericordia, a care community for children and adults with developmental disabilities, in honor of Sister Jean.
Sister Jean has been a Ramblers basketball fan for a long time, and she says the passion of the players has only gotten stronger.
"I love working with these young people and I think that's what kept my heart young, not my body young, but kept my heart young all these years."
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