Hughitt showed the effectiveness of the Yost system of coaching by developing a bunch of green material, a team which staged a real 'comeback' after a bad start last year.

[2]After experiencing a winless season in 1916, Hughitt left his coaching position in Maine and signed with the Youngstown Patricians of the Ohio League, turning professional as a player-coach.

When the Prospects joined the ranks of the APFA (later known as the National Football League) in 1920, Hughitt was retained as the centerpiece of the now-renamed Buffalo All-Americans.

Buffalo sports historian Jeffrey J. Miller credits Hughitt for helping reintegrate black players in professional American football by strictly enforcing unsportsmanlike conduct penalties for fouls against black players that were clearly motivated by racism, during his time as a referee in the AAFC; Miller cites statements from Marion Motley, who played games that Hughitt had officiated, in support of this.

In 1937, he served for a term of four years on the Buffalo Common Council, and at one point he unsuccessfully ran for the sheriff of Erie County.