NASHVILLE — Ed Temple, the former women’s track and field coach at Tennessee State whose Tigerbelles won 13 Olympic gold medals and helped break down racial and gender barriers in the sport, died Thursday night. He was 89.

Mr. Temple’s daughter, Edwina, told Tennessee State officials that her father died after an illness. He celebrated his birthday Tuesday.

Mr. Temple coached the women’s track team at Tennessee State, formerly Tennessee A&I, from 1953 to 1994. He was head coach of the US Olympics women’s teams in 1960 and 1964 and assistant coach in 1980.

One of the athletes he coached at TSU, Wilma Rudolph, became the first American woman to win three gold medals at a single Olympics, in Rome in 1960. She won the 100 and 200 meters and teamed with Martha Hudson, Lucinda Williams, and Barbara Jones to win the 400 relay.

Mr. Temple, whose other gold medalists from TSU included Edith McGuire and Wyomia Tyus, was inducted into nine halls of fame, including the Olympic Hall of Fame in 2012, where he was one of only four coaches to be inducted.

He also served as a member of the US Olympic Committee, the international Women’s Track and Field Committee, and the Nashville Sports Council.

Mr. Temple coached the first US women’s teams to compete in the Soviet Union in 1958 and in China in 1975. But he was best known for leading the athletes at TSU, known as the Tigerbelles, during his 41 years as the university’s women’s track coach. He coached his teams to more than 30 national titles and led 40 athletes to the Olympics.

For many of the women on his teams, Mr. Temple was more than a coach.

Former Tigerbelle Edith McGuire Duvall said Mr. Temple was there for her after she lost her father.

‘‘This man treated us all like his kids,’’ Duvall said. ‘‘He impressed upon me to finish school. We were there to run track, but also to get an education and to be ladies.’’

Mr. Temple began his career during a time when black female athletes were treated as second-class citizens, even by their male counterparts.

At the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, the US men’s team refused to provide Mr. Temple with clothes for a female shot putter who didn’t fit into the women’s uniform. His runners had to practice with Japanese starting blocks because the men’s team refused to turn over three blocks sent over for the women.

Still, Mr. Temple’s team brought home the gold and silver in the 100 meters, gold in the 200, and a medal performance in the 400 relay.

‘‘Those were the kind of things we had to battle,’’ he said in 1993 after retiring from coaching. ‘‘It was unnecessary types of things. We, the women, were USA citizens representing the United States. Why did we have to go through all that kind of stuff? It just didn’t make sense.’’

In a 2007 interview with The Tennessean, Mr. Temple said Rudolph was the best female track and field athlete he’d ever seen.

‘‘She had it all,’’ he said. ‘‘She had the charisma, she had the athletic ability, she had everything. When I look back, she opened up the door for women’s sports, period. I’m not just talking about track and field.’’

Rudolph, who suffered from polio as a child, died of brain cancer in 1994.