I believe that the actual term came about from the World War one Arial combat that often had dozens of combatants in what was very unorganized combat at once. The term Fur ball came to describe these short but viscous encounters first. read more
During Air-to-Air combat over Vietnam , Faster and very much higher performing American aircraft were being lost in Dogfights with Mig 17, 19, and 21 airframes at an alarming rate. A big reason of this was due to the Air Force (and to a lesser extent) Navy brass believing in the invincibility of their supersonic , missile only aircraft. read more