IT TOOK 5 SHERMANS TO KNOCK OUT 1 PANTHER.

Actual combat reports show that a trained Panther crew in the

correct location could force this - the same way a single M-18 Hellcat
knocked out 6 Panthers in 15 minutes during the Battle of the Bulge and
USA and French tank forces butchered German tank units who were in the
wrong place at the wrong time and poorly trained and poorly organized as
well. German tank units equipped with Panthers, nonetheless. Even the
concept that his meant "5 Shermans working together were needed" is wrong
in that one well run Sherman could outflank a Panther by itself. It
always depended on the crews and location.
Sherman tanks were not useless nor impotent against Panthers and
Tigers. But they did need a far better gun or better ammunition. Allied
tankers in the M-4 filed multiple battle reports where they saw and fired
on a German tank first only to see the shot glance off or hit with no
effect. The Germans, on the other hand, were faced by thinly armored
tanks and could expect to damage if not destroy a target if they hit it.
Consider the battle of Freyneux during the Battle of the Bulge: USA
Shermans (75s and 76s) engaged Panthers from cover and knocked out 5 at
the loss of 5 of their own tanks. Which is a 1 to 1 ratio. All five of
the Shermans, though, were knocked out by a single Panther that was one
of 4 that approached the village at the start of the battle. The Panthers
were in the open and a Sherman gunner knocked out one with a side shot
and one when it exposed its belly moving over a hummock with a 76-mm. The
other two were damaged by a pelting from US guns in the village and
retreated - one to a hull-down position from which it knocked out a
Sherman that had exposed itself. Later a Sherman knocked out 2 Panthers
out of a column of 4 passing by. When another six Panthers attacked, one
was knocked out and another sent off damaged.
The score was 1 to 5 in favor of the Shermans, but the damaged
Panther that was still hull down in the field sighted 4 Shermans
approaching to join the defenders and hit them all in the side and
destroyed them.
If that Panther had been knocked completely out of action in the
very first fight, the score would have been 6 Panthers (5 plus the hull
down Panther) and no Shermans. Actually, even more Panthers because
others had been hit and left the battle.
Single fights do not indicate what happened all the time. Plenty of
wild-and-wooly fights went one way or the other based on who had the
upper hand. And perhaps the Germans, faced by dangerous guns would have
been more careful.
But, the above is just one example of how a weak gun hindered
Allies and resulted in them losing more tanks and more battles than they
otherwise would have. Even being in a good position with the enemy
approaching out in the open cannot help when your main gun can't reliably
penetrate their frontal armor.
Perhaps the idea that "It took 5 Shermans to knock out 1 Panther"
originated from the general military axiom that when equipment and
training are equal, an attacker usually takes 3 times as many men as the
defender to route the defender from well prepared positions. Eisenhower
seemed fond of this sort of thinking. According to one quote, his own
personal analysis of the hedge row fighting in France was that whereas it
normally took 3 troops to dislodge one defender, the hedgerows provided

such an advantage to the Germans that attacking allied forces often

needed a 5 to 1 superiority.
Which he or someone else might have applied as a rule of thumb for
tank fights, that it generally took 5 Sherman tanks to route one
defending Panther (and likely Tiger). As opposed to a more normal 3 tanks
to 1.