Ugi started participating in the German gymnastics movement aged 14, but soon found interest in the then new game of football.

In 1905 the trained electrical mechanic, specialising in cinema equipment, was lured by career prospects to join Sport Club Germânia, today's EC Pinheiros in São Paulo, Brazil.

Back in Germany he joined VfB Leipzig for the first time, a club he should be with for the majority of his years, albeit with several interruptions.

In 1911 he played briefly for the now extinct club Stade Helvétique Marseille in France, where he was taken aback by the conditions; a wooden cabin to change was all on offer.

FC Lokomotive Leipzig, the successor to VfB after the war, and eagerly followed the matches of both German national sides.