Duncan Fenwick, of Haddington, isn’t too sure if Dick McTaggart is a born-and-bred Dundonian.
Duncan got in touch the week after BwB highlighted in our October 13 issue the fact that Dick — Dundee’s greatest-ever Olympian — was celebrating his 80th birthday that week.
He said: “In 1956, I was six years old and attending St Patrick’s Primary School in Lilybank Road, Dundee.
“I remember Dick McTaggart coming to the school with his Olympic gold medal and passing it round the kids in the class.
“I’m proud to say I have held his Olympic gold medal in my hand.
“Can you clear one thing up for me?
“I always remember my father saying that Dick was born in the west, possibly the Glasgow area, and came to Dundee as a young boy.
“This would make him possibly aged around 11 years old.
“Could you answer this query for me, please?”
I can answer this two-fold.
First of all, I remember being at a boxing dinner in the Angus Hotel quite a number of years ago and was in a group speaking to Dick.
While it was not a question I asked, someone asked him if he ever played football.
Dick replied he had all through his years at St Mary’s Forebank Primary School.
He also said he was team-mates at that time of Jimmy Briggs and either Jimmy or Johnny Coyle, I can’t remember which.
He acknowledged at the time that they went on to gain football fame with Dundee United.
Duncan’s query, though, can be firmly answered by an article my colleague James Masson wrote last year.
James interviewed Dick, now living in Troon, and the great man said: “I was born in Wilkie’s Lane, just off Hilltown, brought up in Dens Road and now my statue is situated in Beechwood (a reference to his statue being in the St Francis Boxing Club in King’s Cross Road).
William Steele remembers, as a young boy, reading about Dick being disrespectful to an all-time boxing great.
“This is just something in the back of my mind but was there not some sort of rivalry between Dick and Muhammad Ali in their early careers?” asked William, of Charleston.
“This might not be true at all but I’m just asking in case you or any BwB readers have also heard of this.”
I can’t profess to knowing Dick personally but what I have heard of him it would seem very unlikely he would ever be disrespectful to anyone.
On digging through files, this little gem came up and may answer William’s query.
Dick was at the 1960 Olympics in Rome as gold medal holder and defending his title.
At the same Games was a certain Cassius Clay, and Dick is quoted as saying: “Because I’d won gold four years earlier and was quite well known, the Americans invited me to eat with them in their canteen.
“I was introduced to Cassius Clay, who everyone had been talking about, and I immediately thought ‘The boy’s a bampot’.
“Even then, he was jumping about and shouting his mouth off, saying he was going to be the heavyweight champion of the world.
“He was great fun to be around, though, and I thought he should have got the Val Barker Trophy at those games.”
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