Illustration of Canadian hockey player Jimmy Shirreff of the Brooklyn Crescents in the Feb. 3, 1908 edition of the Aberdeen Herald in Aberdeen, Washington.

Charles James "Jimmy" Shirreff was originally from Brockville, Ontario where he was born on November 6 in 1883.

Shirreff played twelve seasons in the American Amateur Hockey League between 1903 and 1915, ten of them with the Brooklyn Crescents and two with the New York Athletic Club. He won seven AAHL championships, with the Crescents in 1905, 1906, 1908, 1911 and 1912, and with the New York Athletic Club in 1909 and 1910.

Jimmy Shirreff played at the rover position, the position behind the center forward in the old seven-man game. Over 81 AAHL games Shirreff scored 104 goals, and he was consistently one of the better forwards in the league. In newspaper reports Shirreff was well noted for his speed and skating ability, which was very well required by the old rover position, and he also had a scrappy and pugnacious side to his game.