Tom McTaggart’s love affair with the sport of Track & Field started at an early age. Every April his dad would drive the family to visit extended family in Philadelphia and on Saturday afternoon he would bring his two sons to the Penn Relays. While the hot dogs and pretzels were always a highlight, so was getting a program, filling in the results as they happened, and just getting absorbed in the drama and excitement of the many races. Upon entering high school, Tom followed in his brother’s footsteps by joining the Wrestling and Track teams. Because of a history of childhood rheumatic fever, he could not get a doctor’s clearance to be a runner, so he took up the throwing and jumping events. By the time he was a Senior, a cardiologist cleared him to run -- and run he did, posting a 1:17.0 for 600 yards that broke the school record held by his older brother. At Colgate University he continued Wrestling on the freshman team, but in the Spring he competed in freshman Track posting some good performances at 440 and 220 yards. The next year he ran Indoors as well, bringing down his 600 yard time to 1:14.7, breaking 50 seconds indoors while running on the Mile Relay, and doing the occasional 220 on a relay. Upon graduation, his High School coach, Joe St.Lawrence, encouraged him to officiate local high school meets. He took the required clinics and he has been officiating since 1970. He officiated for many years during his “spare time” because for 34 years he was very successfully coaching the renowned Suffern High School Girls’ Track and Cross-Country teams. Most people identify Tom McTaggart as being a Starter. He began in that position at a young age and now has 52 years of experience in that job. He has been and continues to be a starter at meets of all levels ranging from youth to the elite professionals at the Olympic Games (1984 and 1996), Penn Relays, Grand Prix Meets, and the World Championships. From 2008 until 2016, he served with the IAAF (World Athletics) International Starters Panel. In that time, he served assignments as a starter at 3 World Junior (U20) Championships, 2 World Indoor Championships (Doha & Portland), and outdoors at the 2015 and 2022 World Championships in Beijing and Eugene. In that time, he also conducted training seminars for starters in the NACAC region and helped to create a Regional Starters Panel to service their events. Twice he was invited to be a starter at the Carifta Games as well as the Jamaican ISSA Scholastic Championships (a.k.a., “Champs”). He has also been a starter at the NCAA Division 1 Outdoor Championships ten times, twice at the NCAA D1 Indoors, and has been on the start team for the last five successive U.S. Olympic Team Trials. But Tom is not just a starter. He works wherever he is needed to make a meet run smoothly and efficiently. For the past five years he has served as the Referee at the Millrose Games. In addition to all this, he still officiates every week here in the New York area, whether it is a youth, scholastic, or collegiate meet. Never one to stop contributing to the sport, currently Tom is finishing up his second term as the President of USATF New York and is in his 25th year as the New York State Scholastic Rules Interpreter. He is also currently serving on the NFHS Track and Field Rules Committee. He is a member of the NYPHSAA Hall of Fame, The Rockland County Sports Hall of Fame, the Suffern High School Sports Hall of Fame (both as an athlete and coach), and the USATF Officials’ Hall of Fame.