(CNN)Legendary University of North Carolina head basketball coach Dean Smith -- a man who left his mark on young men both on and off the court -- died Saturday evening at the age of 83, according to the University of North Carolina's official athletics website. He had battled dementia for years, and according to a family statement provided to UNC, he "passed away peacefully" in his Chapel Hill home with his wife and five children by his side. "It's a blessing in some ways," UNC coach Roy Williams, a longtime protege of Smith's, said at a news conference Sunday, "but it is also really hard."
@highlight
Dean Smith wasn't just a coach, "but a gentleman and a citizen," President says
@highlight
"In teaching me the game of basketball, he taught me about life," Michael Jordan says
@highlight
With a record of 879-254, he is considered one of the best coaches of all time
Roy Williams
@placeholder called Smith "the perfect picture of what a college basketball coach should have been."
Dean Smith
Smith
Dean Smith
Williams called @placeholder "the perfect picture of what a college basketball coach should have been."
Chapel Hill
In the 1950s, when Smith was an assistant coach at UNC, a pastor at an inclusive Baptist church asked Smith to dine with him and a black student at a then-popular @placeholder restaurant that, like most eateries in the city, had a policy of not serving African-Americans.
Dean Smith
Smith
Dean Smith
"We're human beings first, coaches and players second, and in the '60s we had to strike an extremely delicate balance between the two," @placeholder once wrote.