His chance to play on the varsity came as a junior in mid-October 1941, when starting fullback Myron Pfeifer suffered a sprained ankle, thrusting Piggott into the spotlight in a game against Notre Dame.

[7] Following spring practice for the forthcoming 1942 season, what was supposed to be his senior year, Piggott was projected as the team's reserve blocking back in new Illinois head coach Ray Eliot's single-wing offense.

[10] He also played service football for the Tuskegee War Hawks in 1944 and 1945, gaining accolades as a "rip-roaring University of Illinois star" at the single-wing blocking back position.

[11] In the first game of the 1945 season, Piggott hit a 50-yard touchdown pass to teammate Jerry Williams, formerly of Miami of Ohio, helping to lead Tuskeegee to a 25–0 shutout victory over the LeJeune Panthers, members of the US Marines.

[11] After the war Piggott returned to Champaign to resume his college career at Illinois, where he was a backfield teammate of future NFL Pro Bowler Buddy Young.

In his second go-round as a senior he was part of the 1946 team that was the representative of the Big Nine Conference to the 1947 Rose Bowl game,[6] beating the previously undefeated UCLA Bruins by a score of 45–14.

[14] Fred Leigh, a columnist for the Washington Afro American, intimated that racial motives were at play behind the unexplained cut of Piggott and Anderson, asserting the two black second-year players were reckoned to have "outplayed a lot of teammates" who were kept.

[2] Following graduation from Illinois, he took a position at North Carolina A&T, a historically black college, where he was named assistant football coach in charge of the backfield ahead of the 1949 season.

[19] In June 1957, North Carolina head football coach Bill Bell was forced out by boosters after a disappointing 1956 season and Piggott was named his successor.

He was remembered by North Carolina A&T basketball coach Cal Irvin as a caring individual and who inspired and motivated his charges at a high level.

[6] One of his former players at North Carolina A&T, quarterback Jesse Jackson, provided a written tribute for Piggott's funeral, recalling that his coach had taught members of the team discipline and manners.