After graduation, he remained at his alma mater, Minnesota, for one season as an assistant coach in 1914. Tulane University selected Shaughnessy as head football coach in 1915 over potential candidates Dana X. Bible and Charley Moran, among others. Notre Dame assistant coach Knute Rockne and Ray Morrison were both unable to travel to New Orleans for an interview, and Tulane officials required a face-to-face meeting with the applicants. The school offered Shaughnessy $1,875 ($ adjusted for inflation) to be its football, basketball, and track coach, and athletic director. When he arrived, he found the football field in a state of disrepair and the equipment to be woefully inadequate. Because the athletic department was in dire financial straits, Shaughnessy paid to purchase new equipment for the team. With only one opponent scheduled in the upcoming season, he wrote letters to sixty schools to secure additional games.