None of the old-timers, coaches, or players I’ve talked to have ever been able to answer this question: Who was pro football’s first tight end?

You don’t even see the position listed on NFL rosters in the late 1950s. Many teams back then were still using a third running back and occasionally putting him out in some kind of slotback position to catch short passes or to block on end runs. Steve Sabol of NFL Films probably offers the best explanation for the lack of answers to the question of the game’s first tight end: “It’s like asking ‘Which was the first brontosaurus?’ Something like that doesn’t just appear, it evolves.”

If so, the evolutionary process took an X-Men-like leap forward when Vince Lombardi joined Green Bay in 1959. Or, rather, when he finally worked out some kinks in the Packers system in 1961, his first championship year, and found the proper position in his lineup for a 6-foot-3, 240-pound former Michigan receiver named Ron Kramer. Kramer caught 28 passes in 1957 in his first season with the Packers and was listed on the roster as “left end.” But he was a tad too slow for the NFL, and so, for the next two years he was mostly left out. Perceiving that Kramer was a superb blocker and that his receiving talents would be wasted on the interior line, Lombardi, in effect, created a new position for him, lining him up opposite the Packers’ left offensive tackle — not always on the left, but usually. Since his quarterbacks were right-handed and rolled to their right, Kramer would be rolling with them, sweeping under the pass coverage. From 1961 through 1964, he became their secret weapon.

It wasn’t a pass-happy era, and the Packers threw much less than most NFL teams. But when they threw to Kramer, they got spectacular bang for their buck. In his four seasons as a starter for Green Bay before a contract dispute landed him in Detroit, Kramer caught 138 passes for an eye-opening 16 yards a catch. To illustrate just how impressive that is, consider that the Packers’ most prolific wide receiver over that period, the great Boyd Dowler, averaged 15.7. The difference between throwing to Kramer and throwing to Dowler is the difference between throwing to any great tight end versus any great wideout: With the wideout, you generally put the ball downfield and risk an interception, whereas with the tight end, you usually have to make little more than a short, quick pop over the middle as he breaks off the line.

Kramer’s first year as a starter in 1961 was also the rookie season for a sensational tight end from the University of Pittsburgh, Mike Ditka, who caught 56 passes, averaged 192 yards a catch, and scored 12 touchdowns for the Bears — though purists argue that Ditka wasn’t primarily a tight end, as he did little blocking that year and most of the time lined up in the slot between the offensive line and the wide out. Ditka, of course, went on to the Hall of Fame, as did the league’s next great tight end, John Mackey, who broke in with the Colts in 1963. The three created the prototypes for modern NFL tight ends, the guy who could both block and catch with equal facility.

Tight end remains practically the only position in pro football that demands multiple skills: If you aren’t a good blocker and good receiver, you don’t play. Actually, it demands three skills if you count the ability to both run and pass block. Tight ends often have short shelf lives, probably because they get racked so often going across the middle and also because, speed being a premium, their value declines sharply when they lose a step. However, some, like the Browns Hall of Famer Ozzie Newsome, the alltime leader at the position with 662 catches, can last 13 years on their ability to make the big third down catch.

Others like the Giants star of the late 1980s, Mark Bavaro, burn out quickly. Sullen and uncommunicative, Bavaro never got the press he deserved. In six years with the Giants, he helped them win two Super Bowls. At 6-foot-4, 245, he was to the offense what Lawrence Taylor was to the defense. In 1986, when the Giants went all the way, Bavaro caught 66 passes for a 15.2 yard average in addition to his savage blocking. Those were the kind of per-catch averages normally reserved for wide receivers, and in fact, for his nine-year career Bavaro averaged 13.5, the same as Washington’s Art Monk, who was probably the NFC Eastern Division’s best wideout of the era. And here’s another amazing stat, pointing out yet a fourth talent a tight end must possess, namely the ability to hold on to the ball when hit (and tight ends always get hit). In 126 NFL games with 351 receptions, Bavaro lost just three fumbles.

The position of tight end is regarded by many NFL coaches as a luxury, and few go into the draft thinking that they have to land a great one. The reason, as Raiders owner Al Davis once remarked, is that it’s “f—ing impossible to find a great one.” (His Raiders found a good one in Todd Christiansen, who caught 461 passes for them, leading the league in catches twice.) By consensus, the best in the game so far this century is the Chiefs’ Tony Gonzalez, who led the league with 102 receptions two seasons ago and has scored 57 touchdowns in his 10-year career. Gonzalez, though, is on the wrong side of 30, whereas the Chargers’ Antonio Gates is just 26, and in his last 37 games, from 2004 till last Sunday, has caught 202 passes and scored 27 TDs.

There are those who think the Giants’ Jeremy Shockey — also 26 and about the same size as Gates at 6-foot-5, 255 — is both a better blocker and receiver, though New York, for some inexplicable reason, has gotten only 23 balls to him this season. As Mike Tirico commented during the Giants-Cowboys game on “Monday Night Football” two weeks ago,”If the Giants find a way to hook up [Eli] Manning and Shockey on a regular basis, they might be unstoppable.”

Some teams, such as the Patriots and the Bears, have devoted more roster spaces to tight ends and found a way to get premium performance from limited talent. New England’s Ben Watson (the “receiving” tight end with 28 catches for 36 yards so far this season) and Dan Graham (the “blocking” tight end, with 8 catches for 105 yards) were both first-round draft picks. (The Pats’ quarterback Tom Brady was a sixth round selection.) Between them, Watson and Graham have caught 36 passes in seven games for a healthy 13.1 average. The league’s best team so far, the Chicago Bears, has three tight ends on their roster: Desmond Clark is the “receiving” tight end with 26 receptions and 15.0 yard a catch, tops of any regular tight end in the league.

Whether it utilizes one, two, or three tight ends, there’s a very good chance the teams that will go down to the wire in the race for the Super Bowl this season will be the ones that get the most bang for the buck.

Mr. Barra is the author of “The Last Coach: A Life of Paul ‘Bear’ Bryant.”