Borgognone attended Reno High School, initially playing as a soccer player. He soon switched to football and was trained in a "straight-on" kicking style. On September 27, 1985, he kicked the longest field goal in high schoolfootball history, during a Reno High School game at Sparks High School. The kick measured 68 yards and was longer than any that had ever been successfully kicked in the NFL or the NCAA. Borgognone was thereafter relegated solely to kicks of over 50 yards and missed all eight of his subsequent attempts, failing to make another field goal the rest of his high school career. He would convert three field goals in a subsequent all-star game, being named the game's MVP.
College career
After high school, Borgognone attended the University of Tennessee for a year before he returned to Reno and Truckee Meadows Community College eventually transferring to the University of the Pacific. Borgognone's college career, however, was derailed by a 1988 change to the NCAA rule books that banned kicking off tees for field goal attempts. This not only reduced the general range for field goals, but Borgognone had always kicked off a tee and was unprepared for the change. Borgognone left college early to pursue an NFL career as a kickoff specialist.
Professional career
Much like Ove Johansson, whose 69-yard field goal in the NAIA in 1976 is the only field goal on record to have bested Borgognone's high school kick, Borgognone struggled to make the National Football League. He spent years bouncing between NFL training camps, mainly as a kickoff specialist. Dirk received unsuccessful tryouts from the Minnesota Vikings in 1990, the Atlanta Falcons in 1991, the Cleveland Browns in 1992, and the Indianapolis Colts in 1993. Both the Miami Dolphins and Washington Redskins gave him a tryout during the 1994 NFL season, but neither team signed him. He was picked up by the Green Bay Packers for the 1995 season and was on the roster for two games, filling in for their usual starter Chris Jacke. Borgognone, after a poor tryout for the San Francisco 49ers in 1996, never played professional football again. He briefly considered a football comeback in 1999 at the request of Ray Pelfrey, but, despite feeling physically able to do so, decided against making another run at the NFL.
Personal life
Dirk Borgognone currently lives in Reno, and is a widower; his wife, Nevada Highway Patrol officer Kara Kelly-Borgognone, was killed while on duty in a car accident while driving to the scene of a reported bomb--a report later deemed false. Borgognone has two children.
