Jimmy Hannah began his football as a full-back with Elmwood, a junior club that existed in Glasgow from 1881 to 1888. He played there until 1887 before joining The Thirds for two seasons when he was moved forward, playing centrally or on the left-wing, and in the second of which he was in the side that took the twice-played Scottish Cup. By then clearly he was be watched and was, with the Johns, Oswald and Rae, one of three from that winning team that were all recruited to Sunderland's then other team, Albion, Jimmy given the landlord-ship of a local pub. 

However, both Sunderland A.F.C. and Albion were at that time outwith the Football League, the former elected to it only in 1890 and the latter not at all, in the end folding in 1892, by which time Jimmy had aftre two seasons already moved across to the rivals where he would spend a further six. Perhaps he had seen the writing on the wall but he had in any case two sets of additional obligations. In 1891 he had married local-girl, Mary (Bella) Potts, with whom he was to have five children, all born on Wearside and on the death of his father much of the rest of the family moved there too.

Jimmy time at Sunderland would see it rise from a first season in mid-table League obscurity to a team, dubbed "Of All the Talents", that took the title in 1892, by a margin in 1893, finish second in 1894 and again first in 1895. Yet, whilst the wee Scot had a role, much of the success must go to Club Secretary, Tom Watson, and when from 1895 team performance began to fall away, at first not badly to sixth, was followed by Watson's departure at the end of the '95-6 season and in 1897 the need for in a play-off to keep them up, Hannah was on his way back North once more, where the game had now been professionalised. Indeed, he returned to Third Lanark and for two campaigns; that is before spending a final, bonus season not at Queen's Park but South once more this time to London and Queen's Park Rangers. It had just turned pro in the Southern League, where money was good because the Football League's wage cap did not apply.

Jimmy Hannah was thirty-one when he effectively hung up his boots, retiring not to Glasgow but back to the North-East and into the drink's trade once more. He coached a little locally, he ran a pub and then worked in a bar. That was before he passed away in 1917 at the age of just forty-eight, cirrhosis given as the cause, to be survived by Bella, she dying in 1935 at sixty-four, and to be buried in North Sunderland's Bishopwearmouth Cemetery.