He served as the first part-time head coach at the University of Notre Dame and Hillsdale College in 1894.
Notre Dame took a significant step toward respectability, prominence, and stability when they hired a part-time coach, bearded James L. Morrison.
He wrote an acquaintance after his first day on the job: "I arrived here [Notre Dame] this morning and found about as green a set of football players that ever donned a uniform…They want to smoke, and when I told them that they would have to run and get up some wind, they thought I was rubbing it in on them.
The game ended in a 6–6 tie when substitute fullback John Studebaker fell on a fumble for the only Fighting Irish touchdown.
At the conclusion of the two-week contract Morrison left campus to take the head coaching job at Hillsdale College.