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Meanwhile, there was a group of elementary school students, mostly little brothers, yelling, imploring the Tigers to take one more 3-pointer.
They didn’t want to rub it into the Gators’ face. You see, NBC had 64 points at the time. Another 3-pointer would have given them 67. The number 67 is well known for being composed of the numbers 6 and 7. And that’s a big, big deal.
A couple hours later, the varsity boys were sitting at 64 points. The anticipation was palpable. Cash Hanis put up a 3. It missed. NBC got the offensive rebound, the ball found Hanis again, he pump faked and sidestepped a defender and cast up another 3. This time it was good, and a certain portion of the fan base (hint: not the parents) exploded out of their bleacher seats in celebration.
The simple phrase “six-seven” has permeated all aspects of culture for no apparent reason.
“It’s a slang word,” fifth grader Paxton Saalfeld explained. “For nothing.”
If you ask what “6-7” means, that’s the most common explanation: nothing. If you are having trouble understanding the meaning of a phrase with no meaning, here are a few examples of how the term is used to provide some context:
If you asked someone, “What are you doing today?” an appropriate response might be “Six, seven.” Or if you asked a group of kids what they wanted to eat for lunch, they could say, “Six, seven.”
It’s even better when someone says the words “six, seven” organically and accidentally, such as “Open your books to pages 6 and 7,” or “The game will start around 6 or 7 tonight.”
Such statements would likely be met by the audience saying “Six, seven,” with the “seven” being pronounced a little slower and a little lower. The response would be accompanied by the six-seven hand gesture, which is performed with hands in front, moving up and down with the palms up, as if one was pantomiming juggling.
The group of fifth graders interviewed for this story said the best part of the six-seven phenomena is when adults get annoyed by it.
NBE fourth grade teacher Katie Scholl heard it popping up in her classroom this fall. Boundaries had to be drawn.
“My kids know when to say it and when not to say it,” Scholl said. “I’m not 100% for sure what it means. I’ve tried looking it up multiple times. I’ve asked the kids, and they haven’t given me a definite answer.”
NBC high school social studies teacher Kyle Meyer said he first heard the phrase during a trivia contest in October when the question was,
“What is the average temperature in North Bend on this date?”
“One of them goes, ‘Is it 6-7?” Meyer said. “And then the whole class starts laughing. I had never really heard it before, so I was like, ‘No, that’s close. It’s 64.’ I brushed it off, but that’s when I started to hear other people saying it.”
Scholl first encountered the concept when she saw a picture of two NBC cross country runners making hand signs for 6 and 7 (as pictured on page 1).
“I looked at (husband) Justin and said, ‘Are they throwing gang signs?” Scholl said. “What is this? I don’t know if they should be doing this.’”
The origin of the phrase was a mystery to most of the fifth graders. Ollie Ferguson said he first heard the phrase six or seven months ago. Peyton Emanuel said he thought it started with a video discussing the height of NBA player LaMelo Ball, who is listed as 6-foot-7. He was on to something.
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