Todd Svoboda, a fan favorite on Kentucky’s 1992-93 Final Four team, was a star at Northern Kentucky for three seasons before transferring to UK to join the Wildcats and complete his engineering degree. In 2014, he was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a form of bone cancer. His fight against the disease has continued since then, with several recurrences. In this conversation with host Keith Elkins, Todd talks about the battle with cancer, but also about his year with Rick Pitino’s Wildcats, including his first meeting with the coach.

Bill Ransdell is a member of the UK Athletics Hall of Fame, and one of the outstanding quarterbacks in UK history. Playing from 1983-86, he set Kentucky season records for most offensive plays, total offense, pass attempts, pass completions, passing yardage, completion percentage and consecutive passes without an interception. He established school career records at that time for total offense, total offensive plays, pass completions, passing yardage and completion percentage. He helped lead the Wildcats to a 9-3 record and Hall of Fame Bowl victory in 1984. In this conversation, he talks about playing for coach Jerry Claiborne, his early experience in football, including a camp run by then-Indiana coach Lee Corso, and the leadership and the decision-making skills required of a quarterback, among other topics. He also offers his outlook on the 2025 Wildcats.

Lloyd Gardner has had an amazing career in basketball, and is still active today. He is a member of the Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame and the Kentucky High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame. He coached Fairdale High School to the 1994 boys state championship, and was an assistant on two other championship teams at Fairdale. He organized and continues to coordinate the King of the Bluegrass Tournament, one of the leading high school tournaments in the country since he started it in 1981. Before all that, he was the trainer, equipment manager and traveling secretary of the Kentucky Colonels, who won the ABA championship 50 years ago. He talks about it all on this edition of the WUKY SportsPage.

Oliver Simmons was a member of Kentucky’s national championship team of 1996. He was recruited to UK by coach Rick Pitino after a high school career in which he was named Tennessee’s Mr. Basketball in 1994 and 1995. Simmons and other reserves worked their way through the same difficult Pitino practices and training as the stars who saw most of the playing time. The roster contained nine future NBA players, including current UK coach Mark Pope. Early in his sophomore season, Simmons transferred to Florida State, where he played for two and a half years and started a total of 47 games for the Seminoles. Simmons has had a long career in teaching and coaching. He and his family live in Stewartville, Minnesota, but he keeps up with the Wildcats and has some great memories of his time at UK. Here, he talks about the experience of being on a championship team and his long-standing relationships with his teammates, as well as some of the challenges of being part of the UK program in that era.

On the eve of another UK basketball postseason former Wildcat great Kyle Macy is our guest in this edition of the WUKY SportsPage. Kyle Macy is a member of the UK Athletics Hall of Fame and a three-time All-American at Kentucky who helped lead the Wildcats to the 1978 NCAA basketball championship. In this conversation with Keith Elkins he talks about tournament time, and the challenges it presents for players and coaches, including this year’s Wildcat team. He also covers the 1978 championship run, the intense fan interest in UK basketball, and his lifelong connection to the game, which began when he accompanied his father, a longtime coach in college and high school, to games and practices. In addition, he provides insights into his NBA experiences, including time as Michael Jordan’s teammate early in Jordan’s career with the Chicago Bulls. His own project, “From the Rafters of Rupp,” in which he interviews some of UK’s greatest stars, gives fans another perspective of UK basketball history.

Sean Woods is a member of the University of Kentucky Athletics Hall of Fame, and is one of four players who are known as the Unforgettables. Woods, John Pelphrey, Richie Farmer and Deron Feldhaus were at Kentucky in the late 1980s when there was a coaching change and a probation period, but they all decided to stay at UK for their entire college careers. They eventually led the team to an NCAA regional final in 1992, the first year that Kentucky was allowed to compete in the NCAA tournament following probation. Woods is still UK’s all-time leader in assists per game at 5.3. He has been a head coach in college at Morehead State, Mississippi Valley State and Southern University for a total of 14 seasons. He played in high school at Indianapolis Cathedral, and was named to the Indiana All-Star team for the games against the Kentucky All-Stars in 1988. In addition to the Unforgettables and their decisions to stay at UK, we talked about his coaching career, and Indiana high school basketball in general, including his start in basketball in East Chicago before he moved to Indianapolis.

Kenny Walker earned All-American honors in basketball at the University of Kentucky. He is the second leading all-time scorer in men’s basketball with 2,080 points, behind only Dan Issel who had 2,138. A native of Roberta, Georgia (2020 population: 813), Kenny was a McDonald’s All-American in high school before coming to UK in 1982. He is a member of the charter class of the UK Athletics Hall of Fame. He was the fifth overall pick in the 1986 NBA draft by the New York Knicks, and played in the NBA for the Knicks and the Washington Bullets. He also played professionally in Spain, Italy and Japan. We talked about his coming to UK from Roberta, his development into a college star and some of the teammates who were a big part of his success, as well as his relationships with coaches Joe B. Hall, Eddie Sutton and later in the NBA, Rick Pitino. His professional experience, both in the NBA and internationally, are also part of the conversation.

Jerry Tipton covered University of Kentucky basketball for the Lexington Herald-Leader for 41 seasons before retiring in 2022. He was known for his straightforward questioning of UK coaches, from Joe B. Hall to John Calipari. Tipton was inducted into the U.S, Basketball Writers Association Hall of Fame in 2005, the Marshall University Journalism Hall of Fame in 2018, and the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame in 2020. He has recently written a memoir titled Deja Blue: A Sportswriter Reflects on 41 Seasons of Kentucky Basketball, published by Acclaim Press. In this conversation he tells some entertaining stories about some of his interactions with UK fans, talks about his Sunday Herald Leader "notes" column and plugs his upcoming appearance at this year's Kentucky Book Festival Saturday November 2nd at Joseph Beth Booksellers.

Mike Battaglia is known to thoroughbred racing fans everywhere as an announcer, an analyst and handicapper. He called the races at Churchill Downs, including the Kentucky Derby, from 1977 to 1996. He worked with ABC and for many years, NBC, on national coverage of the Triple Crown races. He has set the morning line odds at Churchill Downs and Turfway Park. For years, racing fans would look for Mike’s picks in newspapers around the state before heading to the track. A native of northern Kentucky, he was inducted into the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame in 2017. In this conversation, he recalls his first assignment in race calling at Miles Park in Louisville, his days on network television (including a less-than-smooth relationship with ABC’s Howard Cosell), and his first call of a Kentucky Derby, the 1978 running that was part of the great Affirmed-Alydar rivalry.

Jerry Tipton covered University of Kentucky basketball for the Lexington Herald-Leader for 41 seasons before retiring in 2022. He was known for his straightforward questioning of UK coaches, from Joe B. Hall to John Calipari. A native of Hamtramck, Michigan, Jerry graduated from Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, and worked for the Huntington Herald-Dispatch before coming to Lexington.He was inducted into the U.S, Basketball Writers Association Hall of Fame in 2005, the Marshall University Journalism Hall of Fame in 2018, and the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame in 2020. He has recently written a memoir titled Deja Blue: A Sportswriter Reflects on 41 Seasons of Kentucky Basketball, published by Acclaim Press. In this interview, he talks about his start in journalism, his working relationships with coaches, including some of the memorable dialogue involved, and many of the highlights of his 41-year tenure on the UK basketball beat.