Four of his teams won unofficial Ivy League titles and he ran Cornell's physical training program during World War II.

Charles and the older children worked as laborers in town's woolen mills, the year after Lefty graduated from Bucknell College in 1929.

Graduating during the Great Depression, James started as a high school coach in Northeast and Central Pennsylvania, including Canton and Jersey Shore.

He also assisted in basketball, served as head baseball coach, and directed the University's physical education program.

His agenda upon taking over the Cornell squad was to use Snavely's single-wing formation in tandem with the T formation introduced at Cornell by McKeever, all in order to capitalize on the Ivy League player's unique attributes, which supported a lighter, faster, thinking man's games.

The second year that Lefty James’ coached the Cornell team, the Big Red lost only to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.

James’ philosophy of coaching included the tenet that “[a]ny boy that wants to play football at Cornell will get a chance.”[7] As “dean of the Ivy League” coaches, Lefty James overcame his natural shyness to represent national collegiate football on television, such as the appearance he made on The Ed Sullivan Show on December 1, 1957.

[9] James' teams were initially quite successful, but Cornell's fortunes had declined by the late 1950s to the point where the school decided to fire him after the 1960 season.

[14] Even as the Athletic Department was lining up against James, he remained focused on decisions which would have a lasting influence on Cornell’s Big Red.

His former quarterback, Peter Dorset, was coaching small-fry football in Cortland, New York, when he spotted Gary Wood as a potential Cornell player.

Ten years after his death, the Cornell Athletic Department mounted a marketing plan centered on a “Schoellkopf Sellout” pitch, designed to fill the Cornell stadium beyond the record achieved by Coach James’ in 1951, when his team drew 35,300 fans as the Big Red upset then-Rose Bowl champion Michigan, 20-7.

[17] George Kepford James received his primary education at New Cumberland, Lower Allen Township, Pennsylvania.

He was also tapped into the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity at Bucknell University, and remained active in the Cornell chapter.