I’ve often sat around wondering who created the high five. Hours and hours of thinking.

Ok, I’ve never once thought of it. But this post gives an interesting take on its origin.

The folks at the National High Five Day (stop snickering: Yes, there is such a thing. Third thursday in April. You missed it? Really?) claim it didn’t start where many thought: With Reds’ Manager Dusty Baker and then-teammate Glen Burke; or with University of Louisville star Derek Smith; but a little-known player from Murray State.

The high-fivers say former Racer Lamont (or Mont) Sleets and his father created the motion way back in the 60’s. When Sleets was a child, his father would bring back old Army buddies, ones who served in the 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry regiment. Or as Dad Sleets called them, “The Five”. According to the post, the former soldiers created an informal greeting.

“It consisted of extending their arm straight up in the air with all five fingers parted and saying the name of their division: ‘Five’.”

Sleets was young, two or three years old, but wanted to join the group.

“They’d walk in the door, and a three year old kid, he doesn’t know the difference between all these grown-ups,” Sleets said. “But they’re all sayin’ ‘Five’ with their hand up like this, so I just start saying to them, ‘Hi, Five!’ like it was their name.”

How lil’ Mont perpetuated this in high school and college after the jump.

Mont Sleets continued the high fives through his youth and into high school at Eminence in Kentucky, and into college at Murray State, where he made the all-conference team a few times (1980 and 81). And suddenly, he says, everyone noticed what he was doing.

“That was how it got big,” Sleets said. “Going to college and playing against teams all over the country, that’s how the high five really spread.”

Near 30 years later, the high-five is as much a part of sports as a home run or touchdown. Rumors of Smith, Burke, or Baker creating the motion doesn’t go over well with Mont: It was his, he claims, and all others are bunk. Sleets says Baker and Burke basically did a handshake in the late 70’s.

“So any talk of that being the first high five, or Burke inventing the high five is bull. That story is a fraud”.

So, there you have it. Is it legit? Dunno, but it sounds reasonable. And now we can sleep easier at night.

Or at least stop high fiving the wall.