Mark Story: Todd Svoboda's year of challenges and triumphs after leg amputation

Mark Story, Lexington Herald-Leader on Jul 19, 2025

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LEXINGTON, Ky. — For Todd Svoboda, the one-year anniversary of the amputation of his right leg was July 11.

On that day, the ex-Kentucky Wildcats men’s basketball player sat at the dinner table with his wife, Franci, and reflected on 12 months unlike any other in his life.

“It hasn’t been easy,” Svoboda says. “But, so far, there’s been a lot that we’re thankful for.”

When I shared Svoboda’s story last summer, only days after an infection had led to his having to have his leg amputated above the knee, the onetime UK hoops folk hero and former basketball star at Northern Kentucky University was worried that he would not be able to maintain his physically active lifestyle.

In the year since the surgery, Svoboda reports he has been able to return to much — but not all — of his prior life.

Using a prosthetic leg and magnetic bike pedals, Svoboda, a 53-year-old father of three, has recently resumed bicycle riding.

“I’m pretty much back to normal on weight lifting,” Svoboda says. “I can do that with the (prosthetic) leg on or the leg off, depending on the activity.”

When he swims for exercise, Svoboda takes the prosthesis off. Swimming is now “mostly (an) upper body (exercise). My other leg is more for, kind of, keeping me straight in the pool, keeping me guided,” Svoboda says.

The journey that led to Svoboda losing his leg began in 2014. That year, Svoboda discovered a small bump on the back of his right knee. Subsequently, doctors at UK Health Care diagnosed him with osteosarcoma, an aggressive form of bone cancer.

As a result, doctors inserted a mega prosthesis in Svoboda’s right leg. At the time of the knee replacement surgery, Svoboda says he was warned by his physicians that infection could eventually set in around the mega prosthesis.

That time came last summer.

A UK basketball fan favorite

Losing a leg was especially tough for someone with Svoboda’s athletics background.

Before he arrived at UK as a basketball transfer before the 1992-93 season, Svoboda was a star player at Northern Kentucky University. As a junior in 1991-92, Svoboda averaged 18.1 points and 10.9 rebounds for the Norse. He left NKU, at that time an NCAA Division II program, with three-year totals of 1,114 points and 770 rebounds.

In his one season at Kentucky, Svoboda did not log much court time. As Rick Pitino’s 1992-93 Wildcats reached UK’s first Final Four since 1984, Svoboda appeared in only 13 games.

Nevertheless, the 6-foot-9 product of Princeton High School in Cincinnati became a fan favorite. He is remembered for putting the exclamation point on Kentucky’s return to the Final Four in 1993 by swishing a 3-pointer with four seconds left in a 106-81 victory over Florida State in the NCAA Tournament’s Elite Eight.

As an adult, Svoboda, a Clark County resident, has long relished working outdoors. So it was a good moment for him after his leg amputation when he was able to resume mowing his own grass.

In his job as a principal engineer at the East Kentucky Power Cooperative, Svoboda has responsibilities that include both office and field work.

“There was a period where I could not (work) in the field,” Svoboda says. “My teammates … stepped up and helped me do that part until I was cleared to go in the field. I think I’m pretty much back to what I was doing (before the leg amputation) now. … Some of it may take me a little longer.”

His ongoing cancer checkups have recently yielded good news, Svoboda says.

For all the progress he has made since losing his leg, Svoboda says there are still trying days.

“I’ve always been a very positive person, but I could definitely see how people (who have lost a limb) could get depressed,” Svoboda says. “I’ve had a few more rougher days than I’ve ever had in my life.”

Little things that he used to take for granted — getting up off the ground after changing the oil in his car; picking something up from underneath a piece of furniture after dropping it on the floor — can now be daunting challenges, Svoboda says.

There are things Svoboda can no longer do. He cannot jog for exercise. A conference championship-winning tennis player at NKU, he can no longer play competitive tennis.

In the immediate aftermath of last summer’s surgery, Svoboda says that in excess of $44,000 was raised by friends and supporters to help his family allay their medical expenses, including the purchase of a state-of-the-art prosthetic leg.

Says Svoboda: “I’m just thankful for the people that have reached out, whether I know them or not, whether it’s an encouraging word or just anything to help me along my journey. Because it’s not easy, but that encouragement really helps.”

In attacking the challenge of life after losing a leg, Todd Svoboda says he has drawn on lessons he learned as an athlete.

“You kind of set little goals,” he says. “You try to work your way toward them and figure out a way to do it. Sometimes it’s like, ‘How am I going to do this?’ There’s definitely progress from last year — which I’m thankful for.”