Dudley Allen Sargent (September 29, 1849 – July 21, 1924) was an American educator, lecturer and director of physical training.

His father died while Dudley was a boy, and his resulting situation in life required him to devote much of his time outside of school hours to manual labor on land and at sea, under the direction of an uncle.

His nomination in 1889 for full professor was blocked by alumni on the Board of Overseers at Harvard who were annoyed about an 1885 ban the faculty athletic committee, of which Sargent was a member, had put on football.

Sargent challenged the Victorian tradition of females prone to fainting, and encouraged freedom of dress and vigorous activity for girls and women.

Honorary Fellow in Memoriam, National Academy of Kinesiology[5] Although Sargent was instrumental in creating physical training programs at both Yale and Harvard, his reasons for doing so included not only his desire for a greater standard of physical health for the general public, but also for what he called "the advancement of the race.

"[9] He is the inventor of gymnasium apparatus, of the Sargent Anthropometric Charts, and published: and numerous articles and papers on physical education.