Ben Richardson and Clayton Custer look exactly like what they are: a couple of gym rats. As kids, they slung on their backpacks and dribbled basketballs on their way to school. They won their first national title as fourth graders, at a youth tournament in Indiana. Earlier this month, Richardson and Custer, still teammates, but now in the maroon and gold of Loyola-Chicago, led the Ramblers to the Missouri Valley Conference tournament title. If Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, the team’s 98-year-old chaplain and scout, is the soul of the Loyola Ramblers basketball team, then Richardson and Custer are its heart.

Source: New York Times March 27, 2018 20:25 UTC