Who was the first person to give someone a hi 5

Question

Who was the first person to give someone a hi 5

Answer 1

I know that you see d**k Shawn get one in the film "The Producers" (1966 or so)

Answer 2

me and your mom.

merci boucoup.

Answer 3

The true history of the High Five can finally be revealed.

Victor's father, Lamont Sleets Jr, known to his friends as Mont, is one of the greatest basketball players in Murray State University's history.  Twice named to the Ohio Valley All-Conference team, Mont's true legacy has not been recognized until now:  Mont Sleets invented the High Five as we know it today.

Sleets grew up in Campbellsburg, KY and starred on the basketball team at Eminence High School.  When he was young, his father, Lamont Sleets, Sr. would frequently entertain visits from his old army buddies.  Sleets Sr. served in Vietnam, in the 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry regiment.  "It was the Bobcat division," Mont said, "but my dad and his friends always called it 'The Five.'"  Sleets Sr. and his army friends started an informal greeting between them while serving in Vietnam.  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 thinks that when he was around 2 or three years old, it was only natural to want to emulate the old army men that gathered in his house.  Since it was tough for a youngster to keep track of all the different names of the visitors, the saying of "Five" became young Mont Sleets' universal salutation for his fathers friends.  Sleets recalls the story with the weariness of anybody recounting the family stories they heard over and over while growing up, but not without telltale signs of enthusiasm throughout: "They'd walk in the door, and a three year old kid, he doesn't know the difference between all these grown-ups.  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."

Sleets Sr. and his friends found Mont's desire to emulate them charming and would often kneel down on the ground so little Mont could return the salutation to them as well.  Mont would hold his hand up and say "Hi Five!" back.  "And when you're a little kid, you're curious," said Sleets.  "You see all these old veterans, and their hands are so much bigger than yours, and you want to put your hand up and compare it to them."  From there, the gesture simply evolved over time.  As Mont got older, he of course learned the proper names of his father's visitors.  But his childhood greeting of a hand held high and a "Hi, Five!" had stuck.  Though he stopped wanting to compare hands with his dad's friends, teenage Mont remained willing to give their hands a quick tap with his own.  



"When I got older and started playing basketball," Sleets explains, "it didn't even seem weird to me.  Some things you just grow up around and they seem normal to you."  His teammates at Eminence High School were in awe of Mont's skill on the court, and because of this respect, Mont's unique gesture became contagious. Members of the basketball team were soon both giving and receiving High Fives.  Mont excelled at Eminence, and was recruited heavily out of high school.  He chose to attend Murray State, and the high fives followed him to Racer campus.  "That was how it got big.  Going to college and playing against teams all over the country, that's how the high five really spread."  The Racer's enjoyed success during Mont's tenure on the team, and Mont himself made the All-Conference team two consecutive years, 1979-80 and 1980-81.  



When asked about the Baker/Burke home run that reportedly happened in 1977, Sleets makes no attempt to conceal his scorn.  What he has heard over the years regarding the interaction was that it was much closer to a handshake.  "Whatever those guys did, that was not a High Five.  Maybe after the fact, someone went back and said 'Those two high fived,' but they didn't call it that, and they didn't think they were doing that."  Besides, Sleets adds, he was High Fiving his dad's army buddies, and calling it a high five, back in the mid 60s.  "So any talk of that being the first high five, or Burke inventing the high five is bull.  That story is a fraud," Sleets states bluntly.

So how does the inventor of the High Five feel about the status it has attained in modern culture?  He's happy about it, but acknowledges that though he and his father and his fellow Fifth Division veterans may be responsible for the gesture and the name, there was only so much they could do to propagate the High Five on their own.  "We started it, and we named it, but I'm really only one small town Kentucky boy when it comes down to it," says Sleets.  "Once it gets out there, once people start seeing you do it, it really becomes out of your control what happens to it."  Sleets doesn't mind the fact that, until now, the historical record regarding High Fives has omitted him.  "Some people invent the computer, and it makes them rich.  The High Five was never gonna make me a penny.  But it's made some people happy... a lot of people happy."



Indeed it has.  Mont Sleets, the inventor of the High Five, has finally received his due.