James Corcoran Donnelly (December 9, 1881 – March 24, 1952) was an American college football player and coach in the early 1900s.

He practiced law and served as head football coach at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (1909, 1911, 1915), Howard College in Birmingham, Alabama (1910), and Miami University in Oxford, Ohio (1912–1914), compiling a career college football record of 22–32–4.

His younger brother, Charley Donnelly also coached football at the high school and college level.

His youngest brother, Ralph E. Donnelly, was also a standout football player and war hero.

That year, he helped the Dartmouth eleven to an undefeated record of 9–0–1 with a scoreless tie to national power Harvard.

[7] In 1910 he took the head football job at Howard College (now known as Samford University) in Birmingham, Alabama.

Donnelly was unable to be in Oxford for the entire school year since he could only take a limited amount of time off from his law practice in Massachusetts.

[2][3] Donnelly was killed in a traffic accident in Ashland, Virginia, on the way back from Florida, on March 24, 1952.