 James Hogan was born in 1882 into an Irish Catholic family in Lancashire, the son of James Hogan, he grew up in Burnley and received his early education at St Mary Magdalene RC School at Gannow, his father hoped he would enter the Priesthood and sent him to study as a Boarder at the Salford Diocesan Junior Seminary St Bede's College, Manchester in September 1896.He graduated at Midsummer 1900 after deciding not to pursue his vocation any further, but was College Head Boy in the 1899/1900 Academic Year.After leaving school he became a footballer, and latterly a football coach, working across Europe and was teaching in Austria at the outbreak of World War One, when he was arrested and interned as an enemy alien.