Born in Stalybridge, Cheshire, Broad began his football career with St Mark's, before moving to Stalybridge Celtic. He joined Manchester City in 1911, Manchester United in 1912, and then Oldham Athletic in 1913, without having made an appearance for either United or City. In his one season with Oldham, Broad made 15 appearances and scored five goals, but he was allowed to join Morton of Scotland in 1914. He returned to England with Millwall in 1919, scoring 39 goals in 54 games for the club, mostly in the Southern Football League. Broad was brought to Stoke by wealthy director John Slater along with his brother Tommy. The idea was that winger Tommy would supply crosses for Jimmy to convert and it worked very well as in 1921–22 Stoke gained promotion with Jimmy top-scoring with 27 goals. However Stoke struggled in the First Division and despite Jimmy scoring 26 goals Stoke were relegated back to the Second Division. In 1923–24 a promotion challenge failed to materialise and at the end of the season the board decided to reduce the wage bill by releasing ten players which included the Broad brothers. Jimmy and eight unwanted teammates arrived at the Victoria Ground and ransacked the offices causing a considerable amount of damage. He joined Everton in 1924, via Sittingbourne, and scored eight goals in 18 games for the Toffees. In 1925, he moved to New Brighton, for whom he scored three goals in 11 matches, and then he joined Watford in 1926. After just one game for Watford, in which he scored a goal, Broad was sacked for a breach of discipline. He moved into non-league football with Caernarvon Town and Taunton Town, before returning to New Brighton at the age of 38. However, he did not make any appearances for New Brighton before joining Fleetwood. He then went on to do some coaching with Deportivo de La Coruña in Spain as well as in Turkey, Switzerland, Italy, Norway, Holland and South Africa. At the age of 40 in 1931 he finally settled down taking up the post of groundsman at Chelmsford City a position he kept until his death in 1963.
