Education, Football, and Early Career
After graduation in 1952 from Baylor School, a private high school in Chattanooga, Tennessee, James was a four-year letterman (1952–1955) and All-American halfback for the Auburn University football team playing for head coach Ralph "Shug" Jordan. He received a civil engineering degree in 1957. He played professional football in Canada as a member of the Montreal Alouettes during the 1956 season and entered the Army to serve two years as a lieutenant in the U.S. Corps of Engineers.
From 1958–59, James was a heavy construction engineer with Burford Tractor Company in Montgomery, AL. In 1959, his second born, Gregory Fleming James, was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis. Needing money to pay Greg's medical bills, James left Montgomery in 1960 to take a job as construction superintendent with Laidlaw Contracting Company, a road-paving company in Mobile, AL. In 1961, the James decided that he could earn a living from the manufacture of plastic-coated barbells. In 1962, he founded Diversified Products Inc., a manufacturer of fitness equipment known for the plastic-disc barbells filled with "Orbatron," which DP patented. The company name had been changed to "Diversified Products Corporation" after originally being called Health-Disc Inc. In addition to physical fitness equipment, the company manufactured ballasts and counterweights for farms, industry and trucking. James founded DP in his basement and, over the next 15 years, the company ultimately grew to employ 1,500 people with plants in Opelika, AL, Los Angeles, and Toronto, with sales of about $1 billion annually. James served as the CEO of DP until it was bought by the Liggett Group in 1977.
James lost his 8-year-old son to cystic fibrosis. The Gregory Fleming James Cystic Fibrosis Research Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, established in 1981, is named in his honor. James played an integral role in the establishment of the Center.
Additionally, from 1972 to 1974, James served as president of the Alabama Citizens for Transportation, a statewide committee which developed a twenty-year highway program subsequently adopted by the Alabama Legislature.
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