This is the 2^nd in a series profiling this year's inductees for the Baylor Athletics Hall of Fame and Wall of Honor, which will be posted every week at baylorbears.com.
 
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            Denes Lukacs remembers sitting on the couch in his apartment in Budapest, Hungary, following an afternoon workout, when he got a random phone call. 

            "This is 2005, so there's no iPhones, it's the old Nokia phones. And there's this long number on it," he said. "I answer it, and this guy says, 'Hey, this is Matt Knoll from Baylor University, you want to come study here?' I was like, 'What are you talking about?' and hung up."

            That was Lukacs' initial introduction to Baylor, thinking that it was actually one of his friends pranking him. Two minutes later, Knoll called back and then sent a follow-up email asking if the Hungarian U18 singles champion was interested in coming to college. 

            "That's when I realized, 'Okay, this is serious. There is a school in Texas that's interested in me,''' Lukacs said. "That's how the whole thing started."

            What started with a hang-up ended with Lukacs becoming a three-time singles All-American with 135 career singles wins while helping the Bears to a combined six Big 12 titles and four-straight trips to at least the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals. 

            And now, 13 years after his collegiate career ended (2006-10), Lukacs is part of the 2023 Baylor Athletics Hall of Fame class that includes football's J.D. Walton and Ken Quesenberry, Stan Curry, Tiffany Townsend and Sandy Forsythe Massey from track and field, baseball's Max Muncy and longtime Baylor basketball color analyst Pat Nunley. 

            Seeing former tennis All-Americans Benedikt Dorsch, Benjamin Becker and Lars Poerschke inducted into the Hall of Fame in the previous eight years, "I thought I might have a chance one day," Lukacs said. 

            "But I never thought it was going to be this early," he said. "You never really believe it until it happens. This is such a great honor that – you may think, yeah, maybe one day – but even if it doesn't, you don't feel like you missed out or anything. And if it happens, it's just pretty unbelievable."

            Initially, Lukacs was convinced he was going to make it in professional tennis and didn't even need to go the college tennis route "because I'm too cool."

            "I quickly realized that that's not going to happen, not the way I want it to happen," he said. "College tennis is a very unique place, because it not only prepares you for professional tennis, it prepares you for life. With the exception of one or two in the world, every single 18- or 19-year-old should go to college. They should because it's the best stepping stone in life."

            That was certainly the case for Lukacs. 
            While he reached his career-high singles ranking of 402^nd in the world at 25 years old, he was basically out of the game within a matter of months. But he has climbed the ladder, starting out as a customer service rep with a small company, moving to a dream job with Oracle and now a key role as the Regional Financial Lead for Workday, an on-demand financial management, human capital management and student information system software vendor. 

            "Coming over from Oracle to Workday was a really, really hard decision. It was really hard," Lukacs said. "Being so close with Mark (Hurd), he was such a big supporter of Baylor. While he was at Oracle and I was at Oracle at the same time, it was just a very unique experience. Oracle is in my heart, no matter what. But from a career perspective, Workday offered a very unique opportunity where I could advance a lot faster."

            Ranked as high as No. 86 in the ITF rankings, Lukacs was the runner-up in the 2006 Hungarian Men's Tennis Championship and represented Hungary in a Davis Cup match with Bulgaria that same year. 

            As a freshman at Baylor, he settled into the No. 6 singles role for a top-5 Baylor team, compiling a 32-9 record overall and a 17-2 mark at No. 6. 

            "I didn't like it at first because I wanted to be No. 1. That's what I came to play," he said. "I complained a little bit, Coach put me on Court 2, and I got my butt handed to me. I realized that maybe I'm not there yet. I ended up on the No. 6 line for the rest of the year and won a lot of matches. I learned a lot, built a lot of confidence and contributed to the team the way that I was supposed to. And it prepared me for a really great three years."

            Homesick that first year, Lukacs was ready to quit and tried to go home, but his parents encouraged him to stay. 

            "The community was big, the teachers helping you every day," he said. "Coach Knoll hugging you when you need to be hugged. You feel it as a player. Yeah, he's a pretty tough coach, but he loves you and wants the best for you. Baylor wants the best for you. And I actually wanted to talk to these people, I wanted to be able to communicate with these guys. So, why not learn the language?"

            His freshman year ended with a tight 4-3 loss to Illinois in the NCAA semifinals. While Lukacs won in straight sets at No. 6, the Bears dropped three-setters at Nos. 2 and 4 and lost the doubles point with a pair of tie-breaker defeats. 

            "Oh, you bringing that up?" he said. "It was a very interesting experience because that was my first year at the NCAAs. I didn't really know what to expect. The reason I don't have any regrets is because I felt like the team left everything on the table. That was the preparation for the entire year. We were preparing to be the best we could be on that match. And we tried. Sometimes you win in tennis, sometimes you lose."

            While the team never made it past the quarterfinals again, losing to top-ranked Virginia in 2008, No. 3 Ohio State in 2009 and No. 2 Tennessee in 2010, Lukacs had a year to remember as a sophomore. Ending the season ranked No. 6, he earned his first All-America honor and went 47-10, the second-most singles wins in program history. 

            "I didn't go into it with the idea that I would like to win 47 matches," he said. "It was just okay, this is the next match. . . . It was a step-by-step process, one-by-one. And all of a sudden, I had 47 matches under my belt. It was just a really good year. I understood the community, I understood what was around me, I understood my responsibilities, what I needed to do. And it just came out great. That was a fantastic year."

            Moving up to the No. 1 spot after Poerschke left, Lukacs was 57-17 overall and 40-11 in dual matches over his last two seasons, going on a 13-match winning streak during his junior campaign. He ranks second all-time with the 135 singles victories and is one of seven players in the 200 club (combined singles and doubles wins). 
            
            Denes and his wife, Krisztina Kovacs, a fellow Hungarian and tennis director at High Point Tennis Center in Plano, have a 6-year-old son, Lennox, and live in Allen, Texas. 

            "What a special weekend," Lukacs said of the Nov. 3-4 Hall of Fame weekend. "I cannot be more excited about it. This is the best timing to come back. It's been a while, life goes by and then you do a lot of things. It's relaxing and exciting at the same time to come back. That calmness you get when you feel like you're going home. That's the feeling I have, just a calm excitement."

            Tickets to the banquet are $50 per person, with table sponsorships also available at the green ($600) and gold ($800) levels, and can be purchased by contacting the "B" Association at 254-710-3045 or by email at tammy_hardin@baylor.edu.