Sister Jean Dolores-Schmidt, the 98-year-old nun and team chaplain of NCAA Tournament upstart Loyola University Chicago, has become the darling of March Madness.
But WKGN-AM radio host Cody McClure in Knoxville, Tennessee, figured some irreverence was called for after No. 11 seed Loyola upset No. 3 University of Tennessee on Saturday to reach the Sweet 16.
“Fuck Sister Jean -everyone,” he wrote in a now-deleted tweet captured in a screenshot.
On Monday, McClure wasn’t backing down. “I don’t regret the joke, no I don’t, because of the fact it was a joke,’’ McClure told the Chicago Tribune. “For me, I’m wondering when are we as a society going to learn how to take a joke again?”
However, McClure did suggest a “sorry” could be possible.
“I would issue an apology to Sister Jean,’’ he said to the paper. “If this were to ever get back to Sister Jean, I would hope that she understood that it was meant to be nothing more than a joke. I’m not some kind of monster. I mean, who would in their heart hate an elderly nun?”
McClure said his boss had told him that he would not be fired.
But if the radio host thinks he’s going to win the public relations war, he likely doesn’t have a prayer.
Loyola Chicago will play the University of Nevada on Thursday in Atlanta.