Born Helen Kirkland in Washington, D.C., Sister Marie Louise Kirkland grew up in Rockville, Maryland. She played basketball while attending high school in Montgomery County and later studied at Immaculata College in Washington, D.C. After graduating, she was a courthouse clerk in Rockville until she was in her thirties when she became a nun.

For much of her life, Sister Marie Louise led a quiet existence at Georgetown Visitation, praying at regular intervals during the day, putting on plays at the convent school and helping out with the needs of boarding students. Throughout it all, however, she maintained a passionate interest in sports of all kinds. She was famous for her fervent imprecation, "Sweet Jesus, give us a touchdown." She burst on to the sports scene in 1989, when she appeared as a "mystery prognosticator" for a popular sportscaster, Glenn Brenner in Washington, D.C. She was a member of a cloistered order, so cameras regularly visited her at the Georgetown Visitation Girls' School. Sister Marie Louise beat an array of celebrity forecasters with her uncannily accurate auguries, acting on gut instinct. Her evening prayer schedule ended at 8pm sharp, in time for night game kick-offs. Once the game was under way she was known to jump, scream, exchange "high-fives" with other nuns, and was not above invoking the Lord's name to secure a touchdown for the local team, the Washington Redskins.

When Mr Brenner heard of Sister Marie Louise's prophetic prowess and approached her to appear on his show, the nuns at Georgetown Visitation went into a huddle to decide on the project's propriety. In the end they made a theological distinction between predicting winners and forecasting the exact point spread. That would be oddsmaking. Sister Marie Louise's earnings were put to good use, financing a scholarship.