What is the significance to “quarter” in quarterback, “half” in halfback, and “full” in fullback?
Way back in the old days, the backs were lined up behind each other. One stood right behind the line (a “quarter” of the way back), another stood behind him (halfway back) and another stood at the end (full-back).
I guess it just sounded better than one-third and two-thirds backs.
An alternate explanation that I’ve heard was that there were one “full” back lined up and two “half” backs who lined up next to each other, but that didn’t explain the “quarterback.”
In the formation kunilou describes, the line of scrimmage would be “ground zero”. The QB was a quarter of the way back from the line, the HB was halfway back, and the FB was fully back (away) from the line. Hence the names.
I’ll buy these explanations - they’re the same ones I’ve heard before.
But if that’s the case, how come in the ‘I’ formation the halfback is all the way back while the fullback is only halfway back? Not trying to be a smartass here, its something that I’ve wondered for a while…
In the “I” formation it is the one farthest back that does most of the running, especially wide runs, whereas the one in the middle blocks and churns out the short yardage. These are the roles established for many years for those positions and I guess it is hard to break old habits of thinking.
If a team is using the I formation, the running back who lines up furthest back is the tailback, not the halfback. However, the guy in between the quarterback and the halfback is the fullback.
These are all common names. On the field and in playbooks team use letters or numbers to denote positions a lot.
And on defense, there’s a plethora of possibilities.
Because in the original formation, the fullback was usually the bigger one, and the halfbacks faster. After awhile the descriptions described types of player (big/strong vs. fast)and not just positions. In an I-formation, the front guy is the fullback (blocker) and the guy in back is a tailback, half-back or I-back, depending on the coach’s terms.
It’s all fluid.
We call Shannon Sharpe a Tight End even whe he lines up wide, and we call Jerry Rice a Wide Reciever, even though he occasionally lines up as a Split End (on the line) or a Flanker (one step off the line). Joe Gibbs coined the term H-back for a blocker/reciever who moved around between Fullback, Tight End and Wingback. My high-school team had a “j-back” position, and so on …