Victory salute has unclear origins

Two games in the late 1970s are thought to contribute to the origin of the ubiquitous High Five salute: baseball and basketball.

“During the last 1977 regular season Dodgers’ game, Dusty Baker hit the home run that made the team the first in history to have four players with at least 30 regular season home runs each.  As Baker rounded third and headed home, Glenn Burke waited at home plate to congratulate him.  In a moment that is Dodgers history but never televised, Burke greeted his teammate by raising his hand, and they slapped hands in a victorious high five” (Origins).

On April 15, National High Five Day, which is traditionally celebrated on the third Thursday of April, people will honor that event or perhaps the second possible source.

“On the Louisville Cardinals basketball court during the 1978-79 season, the team switched up their regular low-fives thanks to Wiley Brown and Derek Smith” (More origins).

Perhaps it was a combination of these gestures that created the salute that we know and love, but National High Five Day, which was created, according to National Day Calendar, in 2002 by students from the University of Virginia: Conor Lastowka, Sam Miotke and Wynn Walent.

Social distancing may put a damper on who you “high five” and how soon afterward you reach for the hand sanitizer, but this activity that has its roots in sports is one of the most popular of all sports gestures and requires no athletic ability. So go ahead, high five your siblings, high five your friends or even high five your dog. You can’t let this day go unacknowledged.