Glenn Burke

The slap of skin on skin. A cheering crowd, and the warm glow of accomplishment. 

Despite making history as the first openly gay Major League baseball player, Glenn Burke might best be known for inventing the high five – a near universal symbol of athletic congratulations. Hard to believe when you consider his touch was once thought toxic.

Born in November 1952 in Oakland, California, Burke excelled at pretty much every sport he attempted, but it was baseball which would inevitably create his fame and success. And in 1977, while rushing to congratulate teammate Dusty Baker, he threw his hand into the air in celebration, and the high five was born. 

At first, while playing the sport professionally, his reluctance to date any of the ample women available to him was seen simply as a quirk. He didn’t display the stereotypical effeminate behaviours that many at the time wrongly expected from a homosexual, and even Burke needed some time to recognise his true feelings.

Playing for the Los Angeles Dodgers, he was well liked among the other players but unpopular with the coach, Tommy Lasorda, whose own son was gay and who therefore didn’t appreciate their friendship. Burke was even offered 75,000 dollars, or an entire year’s salary, to marry a woman, but he refused and was promptly traded to the Oakland Athletics.

Faced with a homophobic manager who called him obscenities in front of other players, Burke was sent back to the minor leagues. He left the world of professional sports at only age 27, in large part due to the homophobia he experienced in the industry. 

Coming out publicly in a 1982 Inside Sports article, Glenn hoped the article would yield job offers and revitalise his career, but sadly this didn’t happen. He eventually fell prey to drug addiction and homelessness, living on the streets of the Castro District. The Oakland A’s helped support him in his hour of need, but he sadly died at his sister’s house in 1995 from complications related to AIDs.

In his dying days, Burke said he wanted his experience to make things easier for gay players in the future, and his wish has certainly come to pass. He was inducted into the Gay and Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame in 2013 as one of the first members, and in 2021, the Oakland Athletics renamed their Athletics Pride Night the Glenn Burke Pride Night, serving as an official fundraiser for the Oakland LGBTQ+ Center's Glenn Burke Clinic. His legacy, high five included, lives on.