The "fist bump" or "pound" in European history can be traced to boxers instructed to touch gloves at the start of a contest. Likewise, dart players bump fists that are clutching pointed mini-arrows. Baseball Hall of Famer
Stan Musial used the fist bump during the 1950–60s as an alternative to shaking hands. Musial was convinced that he was catching too many colds by picking up germs while shaking thousands of hands each year, so he adopted the fist bump as a friendly alternative. The modern gesture may have arisen spontaneously on city basketball courts, and was popularized by basketball player
Fred Carter in the 1970s. Others trace the gesture to the
Wonder Twins, minor characters in the 1970s
Hanna-Barbera superhero cartoon
Super Friends, who touched knuckles and cried "Wonder Twin powers, activate!" The fist bump was seen in Australia in September 1990 at the Wetherill Park Indoor Cricket Centre between two opening batsmen, Mick Tyler and Bob Minney. At the completion of the first successful batting over for the pair, they met mid-pitch and fist bumped with their batting gloves. They continued to fist bump for the remainder of the game and it continued into the future. Now this act can be seen on various sporting fields/arenas around Australia, and it is now commonly practiced at an international level; many international cricketers fist bump in between overs or as congratulations after a six has been hit. Fist bumping behavior has also been observed in
chimpanzees, according to a book written by Margaret Power in 1991. In June 2008,
Fox News anchor
E.D. Hill controversially asked whether a fist bump between then-presidential candidate
Barack Obama and his wife
Michelle was a "
terrorist fist jab". Hill apologized the next day, and her show was cancelled the next week and her contract not renewed. In light of the
2009 H1N1 pandemic, the Dean of Medicine at the
University of Calgary, Tom Feasby, suggested that the fist bump may be a "nice replacement of the handshake" in an effort to prevent transmission of the virus. Similarly, a medical study has found that fist bumps and
high fives spread fewer germs than
handshakes. The
COVID-19 pandemic has made the fist bump a common greeting, as shaking hands was discouraged to slow the spread of the virus. File: Tingler Benavides fist bumps.jpg|
San Diego Padres manager
Jayce Tingler and
Cincinnati Reds bench coach
Freddie Benavides greet umpires with fist bumps prior to a game in 2021. File:IskoMorenoLeniRobredo2022Debate.jpg|Filipino politicians
Isko Moreno and
Leni Robredo bump fists before participating in one of the
2022 Philippine presidential debates. ==Hygiene==