Legendary Tennessee basketball coach Pat Summitt dies at 64

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Former University of Tennessee women's basketball coach Pat Summitt has died at the age of 64.

The legendary coach is the winningest coach in NCAA basketball history. She left basketball in March 2012, just a few months after being diagnosed with early onset dementia.

Summitt's foundation released a statement early Tuesday morning:

"On Tuesday, June 28 2016, Pat passed away peacefully, following a courageous battle with early onset dementia, "Alzheimer's Type." This disease attacked a lifetime of precious memories, memories that she has now won back as she rests in her eternal home. Memories that will live on in each and every relationship she developed throughout her life."

Summitt holds a 1,098-208 record over her 38-year coaching career, all as coach of Tennessee.

She's also collected eight NCAA titles over her career — the second most in NCAA women's basketball history.

In April 2012, she was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The Knoxville News Sentinel's reported  Sunday morning that Summitt hadn't been moved from the retirement community where she lives, but family is "preparing for the worst."

Summit was born in Clarksville, Tennessee, on June 14, 1952. She grew up on a dairy farm in Henrietta, Tenn., where she planted tobacco and milked cows.

"I look back now and I think that just made me who I am, in terms of my drive and my work ethic," she said in an interview with ABC News' Peter Jennings in 2005.

She and her three older brothers learned to play basketball using a hoop her father put up in the hay barn.

"When you grow up on a dairy farm, cows don't take a day off. So you work every day and my dad always said, 'No one can outwork you,'" Summitt told ABC News' Robin Roberts in a 2011 interview.

When she was named head coach of the University of Tennessee women's team in 1974, Summitt was just 22, barely older than her players. The university had originally offered Summitt an assistant coaching job but promptly promoted her when the team's head coach announced she was taking a sabbatical.

Memorial gifts may be made to The Pat Summitt Foundation by visiting www.patsummitt.org/donate.

Cox Media Group