I didn’t want folk making a fortune off me as a pro boxer while I fought for a pittance
“Thousands in Dundee met me at the station”
DICK McTAGGART knew he had come a long way from the Dundee boy who worked in a butcher’s shop when he found himself sharing lunch with Cassius Clay.
Not least when he became the only Scot to win a boxing gold at the Olympics.
Now 84, his name is cemented in the history of the nation’s fight game following a distinguished career which saw him record 610 wins from 634 amateur bouts.
So why did the man who won gold at Melbourne in 1956, bronze at Rome in 1960, gold and silver at the Commonwealth Games in Cardiff and Perth respectively, and five British ABA titles never turn professional?
It turns out that his brain, and his wife, were telling him otherwise.
‘If you are going to turn pro after winning (the Olympics) then you’re on to the big money,’ he told Sportsmail.
‘But not everyone turns pro for a similar reason — they want to keep their whole brain because it’s a hard game. I met my wife and she didn’t want me to turn pro because she wanted me to keep my good looks!
‘I was tempted. But you’re the one that’s boxing and the great managers and promoters are making money off of you. They’re earning a fortune and you’re making pennies.
‘Some people said I couldn’t take a punch, but they’ve got to hit you first and they couldn’t get near me, fast feet, thinking of my brain again.’
McTaggart (right) had experiences in the amateur ranks that would be the envy of many pros. One in particular stands out, rubbing shoulders with Clay, soon to become Muhammad Ali.
The 1960 Rome Olympics saw McTaggart share the bill with the future heavyweight superstar.
‘I saw him boxing and had dinner with him in the canteen,’ he said. ‘I was speaking to him in the dining hall and even then he was saying: “I’m going to be the next world professional champ”.
‘He said it would be at heavyweight as well, but he wasn’t a heavyweight when he won the gold medal, he was light-heavy.
‘He was very funny. I went to congratulate him on winning gold and he replied: “Yeah, I’m going to be the next world champion, boy”. To see Ali box was brilliant. He turned pro right after that fight.’
McTaggart’s own journey began from humble origins, with dad Richard stopping street scraps involving him and his brothers and ushering them into the local boxing club instead.
‘(My love for boxing came from) my father,’ he said. ‘We used to argue and fight with each other outside and he told us: “If you’re going to fight, you’re going to fight in a boxing club”.’
The lightweight fighter’s success started to really take off when he joined the RAF. But prior to that, his first spell of employment had been as a butcher. ‘I did that from age 16 to 18, but I got fed up working weekends, so I joined the RAF for five years. I won five titles in the RAF. Every year I won a title.’ That was for England, not Scotland. McTaggart was initially not selected by his home nation. ‘I boxed for England for three years because I didn’t get picked by Scotland,’ he said. ‘I ended up boxing in France and Russia for England. One time I was team captain and had to carry the flag out. ‘When I boxed for England, that was when Scotland complained. I didn’t give a damn, I was enjoying England. I was team captain.’ McTaggart came out of the RAF in 1950. In order to represent Scotland at the Commonwealth Games, he needed to have boxed and won a Scottish Championship, so he did just that. Four victories out of four fights to win the tournament and he was then picked by his own nation.
His first major prize came in 1956 when he won the Amateur Boxing Association Championships at Wembley, which earned him a Team GB spot at the Melbourne Olympics later that year.
The mammoth journey to the other side of the world was a nine-day round-trip.
‘It was five days going and four days coming back by plane. It sounds like a boat journey!’ he said. ‘We kept stopping in different places, New York, San Francisco, Honolulu. It was like a holiday.’
McTaggart, then 20, went into the tournament as an underdog but believed he could go all the way.
‘It was a surprise for everyone else but not me,’ he said. ‘I was going all the way to Australia to win a gold medal and it was on my mind that I was going all that way to win it, with the help of God.
‘It didn’t matter who the opponents were. I boxed the
German Harry Kurschat in the final. He was European champion before that, so I knew I was fighting a good one.
‘I won the whole contest. All the fights unanimously.’
McTaggart was also awarded the Val Barker trophy for the most stylish boxer of the tournament
‘I’m the only Scot to win a boxing gold medal,’ he said. ‘I would like to see more but that’s the way it goes.’
McTaggart went on to fight in two more Olympics: Rome in 1960, where he won bronze, and Tokyo in 1964.
Crucially, the men who beat McTaggart in ‘very close contests’ in both tournaments both went on to take gold.
After retiring from boxing, he became a national coach for Boxing Scotland and later Team GB, accompanying the squad to the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.
So what does he consider his greatest achievement after such a distinguished career? His answer is a surprise.
‘Winning a European gold medal in Belgrade, 1961,’ he replied.
‘It was one I always wanted to win because I was beaten every time in the previous three European tournaments.
‘Winning an Olympic gold medal was fantastic, for the country as well. But the Europeans were harder to win, more effort.
‘When I won the Olympic gold medal and I went back to Dundee, there were thousands of people in the streets. It was fantastic. I had tears running down my face.
‘My mother and father came down to London to meet me coming off the plane. They had never been on a plane in their lives. It was their first time. We travelled from London Victoria to Scotland and changed in Glasgow to get a train to Dundee.
‘When I got out at Dundee, there were thousands of people at the station.
‘An open car drove me through the streets from the station all the way to my house in Dens Road, which is two or three miles. I’ll always remember it, tears running down my face.’