The story of Dundee’s greatest sportsman will be told to a new generation of boxing fans.
Dick McTaggart, gold medallist at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics and 1958 Cardiff Commonwealth Games, is taking part in a project to preserve the rich history of Scottish boxing.
Following a funding award from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, Stirling University created “Tales from the Ring: Celebrating Scotland’s Boxing Heritage” which will open to the public on Sunday.
McTaggart, who famously went on to win 610 out of 634 amateur contests, is among the ex-boxers and their families who have helped create the archive of material and oral histories.
To date, he remains the only Scottish boxer to win Olympic gold and is regarded as the finest amateur boxer Britain has ever produced.
The lightweight fighter twice returned to the Olympic arena, winning bronze in Rome in 1960.
Other achievements included gold at the 1958 Commonwealth Games in Cardiff and silver at the 1962 event in Perth, Australia.
He also won gold at the European Amateur Championships in Belgrade in 1961 and was a five-time winner of the Amateur Boxing Association Championship.
Karl Magee, university archivist, said: “We are delighted to be opening this exhibition to the public and are grateful to The National Lottery Heritage Fund for their support.
“We are proud to be playing a part in promoting and preserving the rich history of Scottish boxing.
“The University of Stirling Archives holds one of the largest collections of sporting archives in the country, including the Commonwealth Games Scotland Archive, and this new project continues our commitment to supporting Scotland’s sporting heritage.”
The exhibition will be available to view in the library until March 26 and the archive will be housed permanently at Stirling University.
The opening of the archive will also mark the launch of a new set of boxing reminiscence cards by the Sporting Memories Foundation Scotland, which the university supports in its work to bring people together through the power of sport.
One of five boxing brothers from Dundee, McTaggart beat fighters from Sri Lanka, France and the Soviet Union on points to meet Harry Kurschat of Germany in the Olympic lightweight final in Melbourne in 1956.
He won on points against the European champion Kurschat and was also rewarded with the Val Barker trophy as the most stylish boxer of the Games.
When he got the train back to Dundee, thousands of people turned out on the streets to welcome him home which brought tears to his eyes.
Thousands of people lined the streets cheering and the former St Mary’s Forebank and St John’s pupil made the journey home to his house in Dens Road in an open-topped motor car.
The legendary BBC boxing commentator Harry Carpenter described McTaggart as “the greatest amateur I ever saw” and he was never tempted to turn professional despite pressure from promoters.
Caroline Clark, director of Scotland, National Lottery Heritage Fund, said: “Our sporting heritage is part of the rich tapestry on which our lives are built.
“The National Lottery Heritage Fund wants to inspire as many people as possible to learn from and enjoy that rich legacy, as well as keeping it safe for future generation.
“We’re delighted that Tales from the Ring is helping do just that and we wish them well.”
