Richard MCTAGGART

One of five boxing brothers from Dundee, Dick McTaggart earned his place on the 1956 Olympic team by winning the ABA lightweight title. After three easy victories in Melbourne, McTaggart had a difficult time in the final against the German, Harry Kurschat, but he won the gold medal and also the Val Barker Trophy as the outstanding stylist of the Games. After completing his National Service in the RAF, McTaggart, despite his limited earnings as a laborer, declined offers to turn professional and continued in the amateur ring for many more years. In 1958 he won his second ABA title and took the gold medal at the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Cardiff. He was again the ABA champion in 1960 and in his second Olympic appearance in Rome he won a bronze medal after losing to the ultimate winner, Kazimierz Paździor of Poland, in the semi-final. By 1962, McTaggart had moved up a division and was fighting as a light-welterweight. He won silver at the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Perth that year and in 1963 took the ABA title at his new weight. In 1964 he became the only British boxer to compete in three Olympic Games, but as in 1960, he lost to the eventual winner in the preliminaries. After many years at the top McTaggart's days as a world class boxer were inevitably numbered but he managed a fifth and final ABA title in 1965 at the age of 30 before retiring from a career that stands in comparison with any amateur boxer who has ever represented Great Britain. After retirement, McTaggart continued to serve the sport and was the coach of the Scottish team at the 1990 Commonwealth Games.