CHAMPAIGN – Deon Thomas will make a good fundraiser for the Illinois athletic department.

He can communicate. He can talk to University of Illinois graduates, boosters and fans. He can tell them his story.

The former Chicago Simeon star center eventually became the all-time leading scorer in Illini basketball history with 2,129 points, a professional in Europe, junior college coach/athletic director and husband and father. His hire as Illini athletic department fundraiser hit Wednesday.

His life story will connect as he makes his rounds as an athletic department fundraiser, because once Thomas lived the life as an Illini, he never wanted to give it up.

“That’s one of the things that will never leave my blood,’’ Thomas said. “Where I came from on the west side of Chicago before we moved to the Inglewood area of the city, you really can become a statistic, unfortunately. Through basketball, coach Bob Hambric, coach (Lou) Henson and Jimmy Collins, the University of Illinois completely changed the whole trajectory of my entire life. Without the University of Illinois, I don’t travel the world and see all those things. You don’t know where life would have taken me.

“As far as the university and what it’s done for me and my daughter, it changed the total trajectory of my entire family.’’

Thomas’ daughter, Gabrielle, will be an Illini sophomore this fall, majoring in animal sciences with the goal of becoming a veterinarian.

That’s an Illini story, and those are the kind of things Thomas can talk about when he’s connecting with donors, potential donors and former givers who have fallen off the lists. He can touch on the most intimate feelings on why the school – and not just the athletic department – is so special to generations of alumni.

Thomas has the pleasant personality and the gift of gab to get it done.

“One of the things I do best is I’m a people person,’’ Thomas said. “I love being around people and talking to people. Relationship building in fundraising is really important.’’

A fundraiser can talk the talk, but it means so much more when it has the feeling and passion of a man like Thomas, who endured tough times and intense personal scrutiny to eventually become an Illini star.

There were days when some kids would have just given up, said heck with it and joined up with another basketball team. Thomas’ start with the Illini family was difficult, because he was in the middle of an NCAA investigation stirred by rival Big Ten Conference programs at the height of Henson’s program. The Illini were coming off the Flyin’ Illini run to the Final Four, and Illinois had the city of Chicago covered.

The NCAA never found hard evidence but slapped Illinois with penalties, nonetheless. The issue still causes blood to boil decades later, because the Illini were one of the nation’s up-and-coming programs until the NCAA threw its weight around in a show of force that made no sense.

Thomas was left to redshirt his first season, when he could have left for another program and a fresh start. But it was never in his mind.

That’s not how his grandmother, Bernice McGary, did things, and she ran the house where Deon first lived when he was six months old.

“Anyone that knew or had an opportunity to meet my grandmother will understand where my loyalty comes from,’’ Thomas said. “Keeping my word was the way I was raised. I gave my word to Illinois. I gave my word to Jimmy Collins and Lou Henson. The NCAA said I could go someplace else and be eligible right away. It wasn’t just because I was a fan who grew up watching them play. It was put into me and instilled in me. When you make a decision to do something, you do it.’’

With support from Henson, Collins and locals like Tony Clemons during the difficult times, Thomas said, “it was like I was their kid. It would have been difficult to walk away when I had so much support on campus. It really didn’t cross my mind.’’

So now he’s commuting from Naperville to the Illini Center on Wacker Drive in The Loop, intent on building relationships with donors, reconnecting with folks who have walked away and ready to make new friends. The athletic department has a need for cash, even with the annual massive cash allowance from the Big Ten Network contract.

Like Fred Wakefield, the former Illini defensive lineman who was hired to work the West Coast, Thomas is a former Illini student-athlete hired as a fundraiser by athletic director Josh Whitman, who was academic All-American as an Illini student-athlete.

There are a few things to fund in the Smith Family Football Center, and Whitman will turn some of his attention to upgrading the east and south stands in Memorial Stadium. But Thomas has something on his mind that’s a high priority.

Finding the funds to expand the Ubben Basketball Complex, where the Illini practice and train.

“Imagine if we had Ubben when I was a player,’’ Thomas said. “I might have scored 3,000 points.’’

The chuckle showed he was just joking.

Or perhaps he was thinking how it might have changed his life, even if Thomas would always be an Illini at heart.