There was the favorable scholarship package and chance to represent his home state. There was the appealing graduate program in sport management and the serendipitous run-in between the coach from his past and his unknowing coach of the future at the high school state tournament. But to appreciate the full panoply of factors former Villanova right-hander Chris Pack faced as a transfer candidate this past spring, one must take a trip inside his wallet.

Do a little digging and you’ll find that what helped funnel the Illinois bullpen stalwart to Champaign was, of all things, his driver’s license.

Backtrack six years to spring practice at Benet Academy, where a 17-year-old Pack was preparing for his second season on the Redwing varsity pitching staff. With freshman Bryan Roberts in need of an upperclassman mentor to help him tackle the dubious double-task of acclimating to high school life and baseball at the varsity level, head coach Jeff Bonebrake turned to the affable junior. Since Roberts had the arm to match his older teammates but not the birth certificate, the license-carrying Pack offered to pick up Roberts on the way to practice. After weeks of car trips and shared bullpen sessions, the two became close friends.

“(I saw) just how nice of a guy he was and how stand-up he was,” Roberts said. “He was the kind of guy on campus who everyone liked, he was a funny guy, everybody got along with him well, he was nice to everyone.”

After Pack enrolled at Villanova the next summer and Roberts signed a letter of intent with Illinois, the relationship would be put on hold by virtue of the two-hour plane ride between them. Things also may have been dampened, Roberts said, when the 2008 Chicago Sun-Times Player of the Year chose the Illini over Pack’s Wildcats.

“He was upset with me when I didn’t go to ‘Nova,” Roberts recalled confidently, knowing that what was to come helped erase the hiatus in the relationship the decision caused. “I got an offer out there and he was pretty flustered with me when I didn’t go out there.”

However, the four years the two spent on different levels and in different conferences would come to an end when Pack reopened his recruiting this past summer. The redshirt junior had earned his degree in communications and was looking to pursue a graduate degree in sport management. Because Villanova did not offer such a program, per NCAA rules Pack would be allowed to transfer to a school that had the program without having to sit out a year. With one year of eligibility remaining, the professional baseball hopeful would undergo the recruiting process once more. Only this time, it wasn’t just coaches that came calling.

When Roberts caught wind via Illini teammates Willie Argo and Mike Giller — who were teammates of Pack’s on the Northwoods League’s Waterloo Bucks — that Pack was considering the Illini for his final year of eligibility, he was “ecstatic.”

“I would always hope I got to play with him again because I had so much fun my sophomore year at Benet playing with him,” Roberts said. “As soon as I found out, I texted him immediately and recruited him to come here.”

Pack, who carries an ERA of 2.79 heading into this weekend — lowest of the team’s three primary relievers — said he was equally excited by the possibility of playing with his close friend and high school teammate.

“We talked this summer about playing here and he said the program’s good, we’re coming off a year that we would liked to have done better but we have talent, and I said, ‘OK.’” Pack said minutes after labeling Roberts as a “great kid, fun-loving … he’s a happy kid just every day.”

Illini head coach Dan Hartleb praised Pack, 23, for his leadership as the unit’s oldest member.

“He’s done a great job. He’s very mature and he’s given us good leadership, been very productive,” the fifth-year head coach said. “He’s a great asset to the team and I’m glad I ran into his (high school) coach when I did.”

Though he is in fact the highest-ranking member of the Illini by age, Pack insists he has no trouble relating to teammates that are in some cases nearly five years his junior.

“I’ve played on a lot of teams and been in a lot of environments, I think I can bring a lot of history, a lot of past games I’ve played,” he said, “But at the same time I’m kind of a fun-loving kid in myself so I like to hang out.”

“Actually I live with three sophomores,” he recounted. “They call me ‘grandpa,’ … there are some jokes thrown around, but it’s fun.”