He enrolled at the Haskell Indian School at age 15.

[1][2] He held the national decathlon record in 1928 while attending Nebraska.

[3][4] He pulled a tendon that prevented him from competing in the 1928 Summer Olympics.

[1][5] Elkins also played professional football the National Football League (NFL) as a back for the Frankford Yellow Jackets (1928–1929), Chicago Cardinals (1929), and Cincinnati Reds (1933).

[6][7] He was posthumously profiled by Sports Illustrated in 1991 as "among the greatest athletes ever seen in this country — a golden sportsman during sport's golden age.