It is generally accepted that first High-Five took place at a baseball game in 1977 when Dusty Baker of the Los Angeles Dodgers scored a home run, and raised his hand in triumph. His team-mate Glenn Burke simply hit his hand wit an open palm and this form of celebratory gesture came into popular culture. Burke later said “His hand was up in the air, and he was arching way back. So I reached up and hit his hand. It seemed like the thing to do''.
So I'm going to take a crack at this. Dusty Baker high-fiving Glenn Burke is the earliest record (that I can find) of the 'high-five'.
"His hand was up in the air, and he was arching way back. So I reached up and hit his hand. It seemed like the thing to do."
-Dusty Baker
Source: [Who Invented the High Five by ESPN's Joe Mooalleen] (http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/id/6813042/who-invented-high-five)
But Baker had been slapping hands for years. The 'low-five' existed in African-American culture as early as the twenties. Many referred to the low-five as 'slapping skin' or 'give me some skin.'
Source: Word From The Mother: Language and African Americans by Geneva Smitherman
I assume you are wondering why these are so many deleted comments! Two reasons:
If you want to know about homosexuality in American sports, by all means submit a question about it, but we don't want to see that taking over discussion in this thread.
Apparently RadioLab had an episode that covered this. That's awesome! But just posting a link to the episode is not an answer, and it will be removed. All answers are expected to be in-depth and comprehensive!
Thank you.
Here is a video of Louis Armstrong and Dean Martin. If you watch, at 5:36 they do a very awkward high five.
This show aired Dec 9, 1965, which is corroborated by the fact that Louis Armstrong says he's 64 at the beginning of the clip.
Does anyone know when we first referred to it as a "high-five"?
Was it considered a fad, like "tebowing" or "planking" ?
I doubt there is a lot of academic sources on it, but there has to be a reference for the most enthusiastic and motivating American gesture.
Can you clarify that this is not about "giving five" generally? There seems to be some confusion in the answers here.