Early years Dygert was born on November 25, 1870, and raised in
Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Michigan Dygert enrolled at the
University of Michigan and played five years at the
fullback and
halfback positions for the
Michigan Wolverines football team from 1890 to 1894. As a freshman in 1890, Dygert played on the
first racially integrated Michigan football team, a team that featured Dygert and
George Jewett, both of whom grew up in Ann Arbor, playing in the same backfield. (After Jewett, another African-American did not play football at Michigan until
Willis Ward did so in the 1930s.) The 1890 Michigan team photograph shows Dygert and Jewett seated next to each other. (Cropped image at right.) (upper right) on the 1890 Michigan team In November 1891, after Dygert's second year playing for the Wolverines, the
Chicago Daily Tribune wrote:"Dygert, full-back, has received his football as well as his intellectual education in Ann Arbor. He is short and thickset, having 158 pounds of muscle attached to five feet seven and one-half inches of length. He tackles low and hard and can be found at the bottom of almost every heap." Dygert was elected as the team captain of the
1892 and
1893 Michigan football teams that compiled records of 7–5 and 7–3, respectively. He was also one of the leaders of the
1894 team that compiled a record of 9–1–1, outscoring opponents 244 to 84. Dygert authored an article on the 1894 season for
The Michigan Alumnus in which he credited the team's manager
Charles A. Baird, head coach
William McCauley and trainer
Keene Fitzpatrick for the team's success:"The fall semester opened under the most favorable conditions for as fine an eleven as Michigan has ever had. Manager Charles Baird was particularly fortunate in securing the services of Mr. Macauley, tackle on
Princeton's championship eleven of last year, as coach, and Mr. Keene Fitzpatrick, of Detroit's M.A.A., as trainer. The work of both these enthusiasts can be seen in the practice of the team from day to day. At a mass meeting held last month great enthusiasm was shown by the students, and several hundred dollars was raised for the team. Thus, for the first time in the history of Michigan football, the manager was enabled to secure the necessary equipment for a first-class eleven. Lack of money has been the cry hitherto." After earning his bachelor's degree in 1893, Dygert enrolled in law school for an additional two years at the institution. In mid-October 1895, he reportedly resigned his position at Eureka to coach the football team at
Illinois Wesleyan University. In late October, he served briefly as the football coach at
Illinois State University.
Montana As early as June 1893, Dygert has stated his intention of "migrating to the 'wooly west,' as he terms it." His law practice in Butte specialized in mining law. He played halfback for the Butte team in 1896 and 1897. The
Los Angeles Times called the "Buttes" the best football team in the West in 1896, as they defeated the Denver Athletic Club 20–0 and the San Francisco Olympics 18–0. The
Times called Butte's Christmas Day victory in San Francisco "perhaps the best football game ever put up in the West." On Thanksgiving Day in 1897, the Butte football team defeated the highly regarded Oakland Reliance team 6–4 in front of 2,000 spectators in Butte. The
Associated Press account of the game credited Dygert with "tearing great holes through the Reliance line."
Chicago In 1917, Dygert moved to Chicago, where he practiced law for 36 years. He was survived by his two sons and daughter. ==Head coaching record==