After his playing career, Akins became an assistant football coach at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon.

Akins grew up in Spokane, Washington and attended John R. Rogers High School, where he played on the basketball team and ran track.

[8] The 1943 team went undefeated and was heavily favored to beat the University of Southern California in the 1944 Rose Bowl.

[9] Jim Hardy, the USC quarterback, said after the game that the team's "only real fear was that that fellow Al Akins might get loose on the runback of a punt for a touchdown.

Akins instead opted to play in 1946 with the new Cleveland franchise that was part of the rival All-America Football Conference (AAFC), the Browns.

[14] Akins played a full season in 1947 for the AAFC's Brooklyn Dodgers, seeing action in 13 games with 3 starts and scoring one touchdown.

Akins took a job as an assistant football coach at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon.