Was the “high five” invented at Freedom Hall? That’s a bit like asking who invented rap music or the Internet. There’s really no definitive answer, and many lay claim to it (including Dusty Baker!). However, Louisville can certainly lay claim to popularizing the high five.

During the Cardinals’ 1979-80 national championship season, a trio of players from Georgia (Derek Smith, Wiley Brown and Daryl Cleveland) used a national spotlight to popularize the celebration.

Here is how the Lexington Herald Leader described it in 2007:

In 1980, the U of L Cards were big fans of the low five. After practice and games, they were always slapping hands in celebration. One day, player Wiley Brown went in for a low five with his left hand. (Always with the left; he's missing a thumb on his right hand. Who ever heard of a low four?) Before both hands could clap, player Derek Smith stopped him.

"No," Smith said. "High. Gimme high five."

And there it was.

Brown never asked Smith why he went high, but as the season progressed all the way to the national championship, they kept slapping hands over their heads. Soon, they started jumping. With players far taller than 6 feet, this was not a five for the meek. National TV coverage spread the gesture and lingo across the nation. Slapping hands was nothing new, but Brown says it's no coincidence that the phrase high five caught on about then.

"All of a sudden, it was a reaction: just do it high," says Brown, now the head basketball coach at Indiana University Southeast. "We were trying to raise the roof with it."

Back in the fall of 1980, The New York Times even gave Smith credit for the high five craze that was sweeping sports:

Smith recalls that during last year's preseason drills ''we decided to be a little odd.'' When Louisville began appearing more and more on television during the playoffs, other athletes began taking notice. This summer, the ''high five,'' as Smith named it, has become popular in baseball and football, and may be sweeping the country in the next basketball season.