The high five is a global icon, but its true origin remains a mystery

Countries & Cities · Published 10 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: The high five is a universal gesture of celebration, yet its history is a tangle of competing claims, marketing hoaxes, and cultural evolution. While many point to a 1977 baseball game, the gesture’s roots likely stretch back to the low-five traditions of African American culture long before it went mainstream.

The most frequently cited origin story centers on October 2, 1977, at Dodger Stadium. Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Dusty Baker hit his 30th home run of the season, making his team the first in Major League Baseball history to feature four players with at least 30 home runs each. As teammate Glenn Burke waited on deck, he raised his hand in celebration, and Baker instinctively slapped it. This moment, while not televised, is widely credited with launching the gesture into the public consciousness.

However, the narrative is far from settled. Another popular account attributes the gesture to University of Louisville basketball players Wiley Brown and Derek Smith during the 1978–1979 season. As the story goes, Smith rejected a traditional low-five—a gesture common in African American culture since at least the 1920s—by telling Brown to go 'up high.' Meanwhile, other theories suggest the gesture appeared in the 1960 film Breathless or among American soldiers in post-World War II Japan, where it may have been mistranslated as 'high touch.'

The history of the high five is also marred by deliberate misinformation. In 2007, the founders of National High Five Day—celebrated annually on the third Thursday of April—admitted to fabricating a story about a college basketball player named Lamont Sleets. They had simply plucked his name from a roster to create a compelling origin myth. Even figures like Magic Johnson have claimed to be the gesture's inventor, though without providing concrete evidence.

For Glenn Burke, the high five became a symbol of pride, but his personal story was tragic. An openly gay athlete in a hostile era, he faced harassment from management and teammates, eventually retiring in 1980. He died from AIDS-related complications in 1995. Today, the high five remains a complex cultural artifact, evolving from a specific athletic moment into a global shorthand for joy, despite the fact that its precise point of inception remains lost to time.

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