Everyone thinks they know how it happened. You see a friend, the vibe is right, and your hands just sort of find each other in mid-air. It feels ancient. It feels like something humans have been doing since we climbed out of the trees, but honestly, the gesture is younger than most of the people running the country right now. If you're looking for who invented the high five, you aren't going to find a single patent or a lonely genius in a lab. Instead, you'll find a chaotic mix of 1970s baseball, a flamboyant outfielder, and a college basketball team that was just a little too hyped up.
It’s weirdly contentious. Ask a Dodgers fan and they’ll give you one name. Ask a Louisville alum and they’ll swear by another.
October 2, 1977: The Dusty Baker and Glenn Burke Moment
Let’s go to Dodger Stadium. It’s the last day of the regular season. Dusty Baker just hit his 30th home run of the year off Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher J.R. Richard. This was a big deal because it made the Dodgers the first team in MLB history to have four players with 30 homers in a single season. The crowd is losing it.
Dusty is rounding third. As he crosses home plate, his teammate Glenn Burke is waiting there. But Burke doesn't just pat him on the back or shake his hand. He raises his hand high over his head, palm out, fingers splayed. He's just standing there, waiting.
Dusty Baker later admitted he didn't really know what to do. His hand went up instinctively. Smack. That was it. The first recorded instance of what we now call the high five. It wasn't planned. It wasn't a "brand strategy" for the Dodgers. It was just Glenn Burke being Glenn Burke. He was the life of the clubhouse, a guy who lived out loud at a time when that was dangerous. Burke was a closeted gay man in the hyper-masculine world of 1970s professional sports, and many historians believe the high five was an extension of the "dapping" and hand-jive culture prevalent in Black communities and gay subcultures of the era.
The Louisville "High Five" Connection
While the Dodgers were slapping palms in L.A., something else was brewing in Kentucky. The University of Louisville's basketball team, the 1978-1979 "Doctors of Dunk," also claim they invented the high five.
Derek Smith is usually the guy credited here. During a practice, Wiley Brown went for a low-five—which had been a staple of Black culture for decades (the "giving skin" gesture)—and Smith supposedly told him to take it "up high." They started doing it during games. Because that team was so flashy and televised so often, the gesture spread like wildfire through the college ranks and eventually into the suburbs.
So, who won?
Well, the Dodgers have the film. We can literally see Burke and Baker do it in 1977. Louisville didn't start their "high" version until at least a year later. But Louisville did something the Dodgers didn't: they marketed it. They put it on posters. They made it a "thing."
The "Low Five" Ancestry
You can’t talk about the high five without acknowledging where it came from. It didn't just appear out of a vacuum. Jazz musicians in the 1920s and 30s were "giving skin" or "slapping skin" constantly. If you watch old footage of Cab Calloway or look at the lingo of the Harlem Renaissance, the "low five" is everywhere.
It was a gesture of solidarity.
By the time the 70s rolled around, the low five was standard. Moving it above the head changed the physics and the energy. It turned a cool, rhythmic greeting into an explosive exclamation point. Magic Johnson once said that the high five was just the natural evolution of the game getting more vertical. As players jumped higher to dunk, the celebrations followed them toward the rim.
The Tragic Hero: Glenn Burke's Legacy
It’s easy to treat this as trivia. But for Glenn Burke, the man who arguably invented the high five, the story doesn't have a Hollywood ending. Burke was traded from the Dodgers shortly after that 1977 season. Many, including Burke himself, believed the trade was motivated by the management's discomfort with his sexuality.
He ended up with the Oakland Athletics, but his career fizzled out quickly. He eventually fell into drug addiction and homelessness, dying of AIDS complications in 1995.
There's a deep irony in the fact that a man who gave the world its most universal symbol of joy and shared success was largely pushed out of the world he loved. When you see a high five today—whether it's at a T-ball game or a corporate boardroom—you’re seeing a piece of Burke’s spirit. He wanted to connect. He wanted to celebrate. He didn't care if it looked "proper."
Why the Gesture Actually Stuck
Why didn't it just die out like the "Macarena" or those weird "Ickey Shuffle" dances?
Social scientists have actually looked into this. Dacher Keltner, a psychologist at UC Berkeley, has spent years studying the power of touch. His research suggests that brief, celebratory touches like the high five build immense trust within a group. Teams that high-five more often actually tend to perform better. It’s a physiological "good job" that registers faster than words.
It also became a staple of 1980s pop culture. Once it hit Top Gun—think of that iconic, albeit slightly botched, high five between Maverick and Goose—it was over. It was no longer a "sports thing" or a "Black culture thing." It was a global human thing.
Common Misconceptions and Rival Claims
- The 1920s Movie Theory: Some people point to old films where hands touch high, but these are almost always "accidental" or lack the specific palm-to-palm slapping intent.
- The Volleyball Claim: Some volleyball players claim they were doing it in the 60s. While they certainly touched hands at the net, the specific "high five" rhythm—the wind-up and the slap—isn't documented there until much later.
- The Magic Johnson Factor: Magic definitely popularized it on a global scale during the "Showtime" Lakers era, but he’s always been the first to admit he didn't start it.
The Evolution into the "Air Five"
In 2020, the high five faced its biggest threat: the pandemic. We saw the rise of the "elbow bump" (which is objectively terrible) and the "air five." It felt like the gesture might go the way of the dodo for hygiene reasons.
But it didn't. As soon as people could get back together, the hands went back up. It’s too baked into our lizard brains now. We need that haptic feedback. We need the sound of the slap to confirm that, yeah, we just did something cool together.
How to High Five Like a Pro (Because People Still Mess This Up)
If you're going to use the gesture that Glenn Burke and Derek Smith fought over, don't be the person who misses and hits your friend in the eye.
- Watch the elbow. This is the golden rule. If you look at your partner's elbow instead of their hand, your hands will align perfectly every single time. It’s some weird trick of human geometry.
- Commit to the height. A waist-high "high five" is just a sad low-five. Get it above the shoulder.
- The Sound Matters. A "cupped" hand makes a dull thud. Keep the palm flat for that satisfying crack that lets everyone in the radius know you’re winning at life.
Where the Story Stands Today
We will likely never have a definitive, court-ordered answer on who invented the high five. The Dodgers have the earliest footage. Louisville has the best marketing. The jazz era has the original DNA.
But honestly? The "who" matters less than the "why." Glenn Burke did it because he was happy. Dusty Baker did it because he was caught up in the moment. It’s a gesture born of pure, unscripted emotion. In a world where everything is choreographed for social media, there's something beautiful about a celebration that started as a total accident at home plate.
Next time you're at a game or just finishing a grueling project at work, throw the hand up. Look at the elbow. Make some noise. You're participating in a tradition that started with a 30th home run and a guy who just wanted to say "hell yeah" without saying a word.
Actionable Takeaways for Your Next Celebration
- Look at the Elbow: Seriously, try it today. It’s a 100% success rate for hand-eye coordination.
- Respect the History: Remember Glenn Burke. The gesture comes from a place of inclusivity and breaking barriers.
- Don't Overthink It: The best high fives are instinctive. If you have to ask "should we high five?", the moment has already passed.
- Teach the Next Generation: It’s a universal language. Whether you’re in Tokyo or Topeka, everyone knows what a raised palm means. Keep the tradition alive, but keep it authentic.
