It isn’t surprising that the high five took a dive in popularity through the nineties and popular culture tried to cleanse itself of the over saturation of the gesture. In the eighties, the gesture took on a life of its own and it seemed like every sitcom character was high fiving someone at least once per episode. Making A Good Thing Into A National Holiday Image via bgubitz By 1980, the noun “high five” was in the Oxford English Dictionary and by 1981, it was added as a verb as well. It was soon being used by teams across the country, most notably the 1980 Louisville Cardinals basketball team, who high fived each other throughout their run for the title and helped bring it to the forefront of American consciousness. No matter who originated or named it though, the gesture was an immediate success in sports circles as soon as Baker and Burke’s slap was seen around the country. University of Louisville baseball player Derek Smith disputes this though and claims that he is the originator of the term. A number of basketballers claim to have started using the term “high five” during their 1979/1980 season. This isn’t the only high five challenge between basketball and baseball players. Murray State University basketball player Lamont Sleets has challenged this story though, claiming that he developed the gesture while playing on his college team in the 1960’s. Burke gave Baker a raised hand to slap in celebration after Baker scored a home run. It was exchanged between Dusty Baker and Glen Burke at a Los Angeles Dodgers game. Image via Outsports The high five that most people credit as the first took place in 1977. The 1941 Abbot and Costello film In the Navy takes note of this with the Andrews Sisters song, “ Gimme Some Skin, My Friend.” Slapping five continued to be a popular gesture in the African American culture and you can see black characters slapping hands in movies all the way up to blaxploitation films from the seventies Making the Five High This was immortalized throughout history when Al Jolson gives a low five in the 1927 film The Jazz Singer. Long before the high five, there was the low five, although, at the time it was known as “giving skin” and “slapping skin.” The low five started way back in the jazz age and while there seems to be no detailed record of how it was started, it was a fairly popular gesture amongst jazz musicians. While the best way to celebrate High Five Day is simply to give out your fair share of celebratory slaps, it can also help to know your history and when it comes to the high five, that history is actually rather recent. Did you know the third Thursday of every April is National High Five Day? That would be April 21 this year.