Karl Franklin Svoboda (born March 23, 1962, in

Belleville, Ontario Belleville is a city in Ontario, Canada situated on the eastern end of Lake Ontario, located at the mouth of the Moira River and on the Bay of Quinte. Belleville is between Ottawa and Toronto, along the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor. Its population ...

) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

former

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

footballer of

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places *Czech, ...

descent. Svoboda began his rugby career as the Belleville Bulldogs hooker and then played representative rugby with the Ontario Junior XV. In 1981 he scored a try in the final of the

Canada Summer Games The Canada Games (french: Jeux du Canada) is a multi-sport event held every two years, alternating between the Canada Winter Games and the Canada Summer Games. They represent the highest level of national competition for Canadian athletes. Two ...

. He then played with the Ontario Senior Men's Rugby XV, captaining many of the games. Two notable victories came in the national championship over the British Columbia Provincial XV in 1982 and 1995. In 1995, the Ontario Provincial Rugby Team, with Svoboda as captain, was named co-winners of the Ontario Provincial Team of the Year, along with the Toronto Blue Jays. Svoboda also captained Canada for two Test matches in 1993, the most notable being the victory over an England XV. During this same year, Svoboda's brother Paul captained the Canadian National Rugby League Team. Svoboda played in the first three Rugby World Cups (1987, 1991, 1995), and amassed a total of 24 International Caps between the years 1985–1995. He went on to play for

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

at the dawn of the professional rugby era in 1995, gaining his full rugby Blue. Svoboda also gained a Blue at Oxford by playing defense in ice hockey during the Varsity match against Cambridge University in 1996. He also played for the

Penguin International RFC The Penguin International Rugby Football Club, usually called the Penguins, is an invitational rugby union team based in Britain but with international players. It was founded in 1959 and has played in 71 countries, claiming to be the most tra ...

, touring Hungary and the Czech Republic with them in 1996. Svoboda now resides in Whitby, Ontario, where he coaches rugby for his high school team (Sinclair Secondary School) and for the mini program at his home rugby club, the Ajax Wanderers. Since then has moved back to coaching the club where it all started (Belleville Bulldogs Senior Men’s)

References

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Scrum.com player statistics
Oxford University RFCSvoboda family continuing family’s rugby legacy
/references> 1962 births Canadian rugby union players Sportspeople from Belleville, Ontario Canadian people of Czech descent Living people Canada international rugby union players Rugby union hookers 1987 Rugby World Cup players 1991 Rugby World Cup players 1995 Rugby World Cup players {{canada-rugbyunion-bio-stub