. He was lifted on to the platform by two fellow boxers and carried out of the station, where he was besieged by hordes of well-wishers before being borne in an open-topped vehicle to his tenement home in the tough Dens Road area of the city, with fans lining the two-mile route.
McTaggart, who has died aged 89, remembered it all clearly in old age, even after dementia had begun to dim his recall of more recent events. “It was fantastic. Tears were running down my face,” he said. “I couldn’t believe it. Peter Cain and John McVicar hoisted me on to their shoulders, then carried me up the stairs and out of the station. People were on the street all the way back to my home.”
Dundee had possessed few sporting heroes up to that point, and to this day there are many who would argue that McTaggart is still the greatest sportsman to have come from the city. There is even a persuasive argument to be made that he is Scotland’s best ever amateur boxer.
Aged just 21 at Melbourne, he became the first Scottish Olympic boxing champion, and in the process picked up the prestigious Val Barker award – the first Briton ever to do so – which is given to the fighter judged to have been the most talented boxer in any of the sport’s weight divisions at the Olympics.
He was born in Dundee as one of the 18 children of Richard, who worked in a nail factory, and his wife, Jean. Life was difficult for the huge family growing up in a three-bedroom home. Perhaps it was little surprise that Dick and his brothers were often involved in street skirmishes, as well as fights among themselves.
“One day Dad just …
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