The History of The High Five
The high five is something deeply ingrained in our society and so it's odd to think of a time before it existed. Years ago, I listened to a RadioLab podcast about the origin story. I remembered it being interesting and thought it would make for a good Sunday Starter, but when I reread the transcript this morning I was taken on an unexpected journey and into a topic that goes far beyond the high five itself.
The saga begins around 2007 with a Press Release from National High Five Day, a day invented by a group of high school students. The Press Release told the story of Lamont Sleets, a college basketball player at Murray State in Kentucky, who apparently used to call his friends five and then say hi (as in hello) - so hi, five. Combined with the slap up top, this started the high five which later took off when he brought it to Murray State Basketball.
Or so said the press release.
The saga continues with another high five origin story starring Glenn Burke, Dusty Baker, and the 1977 Dodgers. This tale was captured with a little more evidence which included a photo and the comments from the sportscaster announcing the game, who said the slap up top had never been done before. According to this version of the origin story, it was that playoff game grand slam that made the high five a thing. The researcher then goes on to share Burke's full story and sad ending which I will not insult with a short recap because it is worth the entire listen. But as he wraps up Burke's story he wonders if the high five legacy truly belonged to him or Lamont Sleets. More research would reveal the truth; the Lamont Sleets story was completely fabricated by the students who invented National High Five Day.
"Frankly we've been waiting for someone to ask - we thought no one would ever ask… It's just something we made up. We wanted to see if the media would run with it."
Now if I ended the story there you might go off and tell people that Glenn Burke is in fact the inventor of the high five. Perhaps he is, or maybe it was Derek Smith who told Wiley Brown no to the low five and said up high, leading the Louisville Cardinals to enter their 1980 NCAA finals with a string of high-fiving that would lead the broadcaster to refer to it as the high-five handshake. Or maybe it was Kathy Gregory's 1960s women's volleyball team who claimed to do high fives all the time. Or should we go back further and give credit to the 1955 movie Breathless that, at minute 78, had two Frenchmen clearly giving a high five.
For something like this, do we credit the first person to ever do it? Or do we credit the people that made it memorable?
I'm not sure, but that debate is not why I wrote this for you this morning. I wrote it, because in today's world of quick news and tick tock, it is very easy to think we know the whole story. As I read through every twist and turn of this history I couldn't help but think about how hard it is to really know the truth. I never take information at face value, I always follow up with a google search and more sources to make sure what I am reading has some weight to it. But in today's world does even that suffice?
If you googled who invented the high five right now you could find many articles to back up any of the people I wrote about today. Even the family of Lamont Sleets came forward claiming that he did in fact invent the high five, even though the children claimed to have made it up. Who is telling the truth? Can we ever know for sure? It is very easy for one "credible" source to go viral with incorrect information. Furthermore, with mixed information out there we are also at risk of confirmation bias, which is when you think you know the answer to something and so any evidence proving you are right will further solidify your opinion. Unfortunately, the bias at play keeps you from seeing any evidence contrary to what you want to believe.
In today's world, when you are presented with any piece of information, I encourage you to be as curious as you can for as long as you can. History is deeper than a five minute google search, and we are missing out on so much of the story if we settle for the top of the feed.
