Jack McCullough

Jack McCullough is a retired professional boxer, and presently a financial executive in the greater Boston area. He claims to have invented the high five in 1975.

Biography

McCullough was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, and raised primarily in Burlington, Massachusetts. He is the the son of John McCullough and Janet (MacDonald) McCullough, and the brother of Lisa McCullough (now Thompson) and Mary McCullough (now Resendiz). He is a graduate of Suffolk University and the MIT Sloan School of Management.

McCullough was mediocre in almost every facet of his life, at least as a child. He was a mediocre athlete, a mediocre student, and was of average height and weight his entire childhood. There are two exceptions to this - mathematics and boxing. McCullough was a gifted mathematician and a star on the math league and also a noteworthy amateur boxer during his youth.

He is married to Beth (Regnante) McCullough, and has two sons.

Boxing career

McCullough was an amateur boxer of some renown, competing in the New England Golden Gloves Tournament in 1983, when he was 19 years old [Kenneth Reynolds:The unknown personalities who have shaped the sport of Boxing] . Prior to the tournament, his boxing record was 25 - 1, and the one loss was by disqualification, when he mocked his opponent after knocking him out. McCullough had two fights in the Golden Glove tournament, and lost both. Afterward, he turned professional, which turned out to be a mistake.

McCullough's official record as a professional boxer was 0-6, all six defeats coming by knock-out. He lost his license to fight in Massachusetts after his third fight, which ended in a second-round knock-out. He has jokingly commented that the state took away his license, just as he was starting to show improvement. His first two matches were first round knockouts, so making it to the second round showed great improvement!

After losing his license in Massachusetts, McCullough received and was awarded a license to box in New Hampshire. His record in New Hampshire was also 0-3, all three losses coming by knockout. He does have one claim to fame, although official boxing records do not record it: " He may be the only professional boxer knocked out twice in the same night in different states!" [:The unknown personalities who have shaped the sport of Boxing]

Urban legend holds that he was knocked out in the first round in a match in Salem New Hampshire. That same night, a boxing promoter in Lowell Massachusetts had booked "Irish" Joe Kelley to fight at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium. Kelley did not show up, so the promoter was scrambling to find a light heavy weight who looked Irish. McCullough was the only person people could think of, and, according to legend, he drove from Salem to Lowell, fought under the name Joe Kelley, and was knocked out in the first round. Official boxing records only show McCullough being knocked out in Salem, and Kelley being knocked out in Lowell. When asked if the story was true by Ring Magazine, McCullough responded "That would be illegal," thereby neither denying nor confirming the story. [:The unknown personalities who have shaped the sport of Boxing]

High Five

Known for his odd sense of humor, McCullough has claimed to have invented the high five, around 1975. He actually never made this claim until 1980, when the Louisville Cardinals made it to the NCAA Final Four basketball tournament, and claimed that THEY invented the high five. McCullough found this annoying, for he was using the high five a full five years earlier on his CYO basketball team. Many people dismissed this claim as silly...until the parents of a teammate produced video footage of McCullough and his teammates high-fiving each other during a game. In 1984, Sports Illustrated wrote an article trying to determine who invented the high five. They concluded that it was probably invented in the early 1970s by beach volley players in southern California, while acknowledging that McCullough had the oldest video recording of a high five in sports history [I need to get precise date of publication] . What is interesting is that many famous people - such as Magic Johnson - have taken credit for inventing the high five, but McCullough's videotape predates all claims. [Burlington Daily News, "Setting the record straight" May 9, 1980]

References