For that matter, why is football the only college sport that doesn't have a playoff or tournament system?
In the early days of the automobile gasoline pumps were not calibrated in gallons; rather the gas tanks on the cars had markings to show the amount of gasoline remaining in the tank. The markings were at the quarter, half, three quarter and full levels. As was the custom of the times, when an automobile owner wanted to fill his tank he would ask the attendent for a full back. Same when he wanted only a quarter of a tank or a half a tank he was ask for a quarter back or a half back. When George Halas and the other owners of the fledgeling professional football teams met to form the National Football League the meeting place happened to be at the car dealership owned by one of the team owners in Canton, Ohio. After much discussion and many heated arguments over what to call the positions of the players they agreed to use automobile terminology to name the positions. For example, since the auto dealership also had a service department to do repairs and being that to remove an engine the use of a block and tackle was required, the position of tackle was thusly named. Since the tackle position was already named they had to call the players who played inside the two tackles something. After nearly coming to fisticuffs over what to call them the security guards at the dealership had to physically separate the feuding owners. At that moment they decided to call them guards and of course the player who had previously be refered to only as the guy who hikes the football was called the center since he was in the middle between the guards and tackles. The term end only was decided upon when the owners were pressed to come up with a name for them so that they could end the meeting.
And can anyone confirm that the tight end and wide receiver positions were derived from a feud between owners of a turkish bath?