Tan Eng Yoon was the national track & field coach from 1958 to 1970. He showed a keen eye for talent. Over the years he has coached a generation of outstanding athletes. Among his protégés were Glory Barnabas, Nirza Namazie, Osman Merican and most notably, C Kunalan whom he talent scouted in 1962 after watching the latter played football at the Teachers' Training College, the predecessor of the National Institute of Education.

Kunalan became one of the best known track and field icons in Singapore. He won several Asian and SEAP Games medals and broke the 100m sprint record at the 1968 Mexico Olympics... this record remained unbroken for 23 years. He was inducted into the Sports Hall of Fame in 2002 and attributed his success to his coach, Tan Eng Yoon.

Besides being a talented coach, Eng Yoon was also an outstanding sprinter of his times, competing at all major games such as the Olympiad, the Asiad and winning the first gold medal at the first SEAP Games in 1959. His triple jump record of 14.51 metres stood for an amazing 32 years.

Eng Yoon's heart is always close to sports - he was a director of the National Stadium Corporation which oversaw the construction of the National Stadium and was Deputy Executive Director of the Singapore Sports Council until his retirement in 1988. After his retirement he continued to be involved in sports serving as the General Secretary of the Football Association of Singapore from 1993 to 1999.

At his 80th birthday in Jan 2008, his athletes paid glowing tributes to him. Tan has been persuaded to write a book about the athletes he had groomed and nurtured and at the time of writing, he is compiling and collating information for this book.