Does anyone know where this originates from?
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If you think about it the shirt is actually an undergarment similar to panties, bra, boxer shorts, briefs, etc. It is a piece of cloth you put under your clothes so they do not get dirty by your sweat and skin. And as such you are not traditionally supposed to show your shirt in public. You do not have to go that far back before regular clothes did not include showing the shirt, collars, cuffs and roughs were considered separate from the shirt even though they were often fastened to it by needle and thread. And still today a lot of formal wear does not show the shirt at all. But of course in order to hide the shirt you would need to tuck it into your pants, with the rest of the undergarments.
People back in the day only had a few sets of clothing and they thought tucking their shirt in would keep it clean longer and they felt that it was out of the way and held in place so they could work. Nowadays, people do it because it might look better or if the shirt is too big. Sports players do it to make sure the shirt isn’t loose and swinging around and interrupting the game. In basketball, it’s also because players are always tugging on each other’s shirts. In baseball, there’s always sliding into the plate.
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