Pat Summitt, legendary women’s basketball coach for the University of Tennessee, passed away Tuesday at the age of 64. (Photo by Doug Benc/Getty Images)

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Pat Summitt, the winningest basketball coach in NCAA Division I history in a dynasty at the University of Tennessee, passed away Tuesday morning at the age of 64.

“It is with tremendous sadness that I announce the passing of my mother, Patricia Sue Head Summitt,” Tyler Summit said in a statement. “She died peacefully this morning at Sherrill Hill Senior Living in Knoxville surrounded by those who loved her most.”

Summitt, who helped pioneer women’s basketball into the national fabric, won 1,098 games – all at Tennessee – from 1974 to 2012. Summitt, who started coaching at the university as a grad student, has the most wins of any men’s or women’s NCAA Division I basketball coach. In that time, the Lady Vols won eight national titles and finished runner-up on five other occasions.

Summitt passed away after a battle with early onset dementia, ‘Alzheimer’s’.

Of note of Summitt’s accomplishments, and they list in the thousands, is a 100 percent graduation rate of her players and program members. Summitt coached the USA women’s basketball team to a gold medal in 1984 and won a silver medal as a player in 1976. But her greatest national honor may have come in 2012, when President Barack Obama awarded Summitt the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest award a civilian can receive.

Summitt retired from coaching in 2012 after her announcement of her dementia, which shook the sports world.

Summitt became famous locally for her recruiting of Wawasee basketball legend Shanna Zolman, appearing at several of Zolman’s games. Zolman would go on to have a standout career at Tennessee and into the WNBA.

Known for her piercing glare, her unrelenting coaching style and her motherly approach off the court, Summitt is survived by her son, Tyler; her mother, Hazel; her older brothers Tommy, Charles and Kenneth; and her younger sister, Linda.