Madigan played college football for Knute Rockne at the University of Notre Dame, playing the center position. After his playing days, he took over a floundering football program at Saint Mary's College of California in Moraga, California in 1921. In their final game in 1920, the Gaels lost to California, 127–0. Madigan immediately recruited sixty men and taught them Notre Dame's plays and some tricks of his own, including the "forward fumble."