Not able to get a handle using I2C_Open() on CC2650 using reference code from TI document

Using: SmartRF06 Eval board with CC2650EM board, QFN48 7x7 RGZ,  TI-RTOS In Use

Using the document  "SimpleLink™ Bluetooth® low energy CC2640 wireless MCU Software Developer’s Guide" (swru393.pdf) as a guide.  (I could not find an equivalent document for the CC2650)

Referring to the I2C section of the document, I followed the following steps precisely (using the same LED1/LED2 pins as on the example).  I had a compilation error on the #pragma statement and I made the change highlighted in yellow.

1. Comment out the LED pins and define the I2C pins in Board.h:
//#define Board_LED1 IOID_25
//#define Board_LED2 IOID_27
#define Board_SDA IOID_25
#define Board_SCL IOID_27

2. Replace the LED configuration in the initial GPIO config table with the I2C pin configuration in
Board.c
PIN_Config BoardGpioInitTable[] = {
Board_SDA | PIN_GPIO_OUTPUT_EN | PIN_GPIO_LOW | PIN_PUSHPULL | PIN_DRVSTR_MAX,
Board_SCL | PIN_GPIO_OUTPUT_EN | PIN_GPIO_LOW | PIN_PUSHPULL | PIN_DRVSTR_MAX,

3. Also in Board.c, declare the necessary I2C structures:
/* Place into subsections to allow the TI linker to remove items properly */
#if defined(__TI_COMPILER_VERSION__)
#pragma DATA_SECTION(I2C_config, ".const:i2cCC26XX_config")
#pragma DATA_SECTION(i2cCC26XXHWAttrs, ".const:i2cCC26XXHWAttrs")
#endif
/* Include drivers */
#include <ti/drivers/I2C/I2CCC26XX.h>
/* I2C objects */
I2CCC26XX_Object i2cCC26XXObjects[CC2650_I2CCOUNT];
/* I2C hardware parameter structure, also used to assign UART pins */
const I2CCC26XX_HWAttrs i2cCC26XXHWAttrs[CC2650_I2CCOUNT] = {
{ /* CC2650_I2C0 */
.baseAddr = I2C0_BASE,
.intNum = INT_I2C,
.powerMngrId = PERIPH_I2C0,
.sdaPin = Board_SDA,
.sclPin = Board_SCL
},
};
/* I2C configuration structure */
const I2C_Config I2C_config[] = {
{ &I2CCC26XX_fxnTable, &i2cCC26XXObjects[0], &i2cCC26XXHWAttrs[0] },
{ NULL, NULL, NULL }
};

1. Include the I2C driver:

#include <ti/drivers/I2C.h>

2. Declare the I2C handle and parameter structures as local variables:
static I2C_Handle SbpI2cHandle;
static I2C_Params SbpI2cParams;

3. Initialize the I2C driver in SimpleBLEPeripheral_init())

I2C_Params_init(&SbpI2cParams);
SbpI2cHandle = I2C_open(CC2650_I2C0, &SbpI2cParams);

with this code, I2C_open always returns NULL (no exceptions or crashes occur with this code).

I have inserted the call to I2C_init in the main() function,

int main(void)

{
/* Call board init functions. */
Board_initGeneral();

Board_initI2C();
Board_initUART();
Board_initSPI();

I made sure I selected "Use I2C Driver" in the RTOS cfg file.

I call I2C_open with the following code...

/* Create I2C for usage */
I2C_Params_init(&i2cParams);

i2cParams.bitRate = I2C_400kHz;
i2cParams.transferMode = I2C_MODE_CALLBACK;
i2cParams.transferCallbackFxn = I2C_TransferCallback;
i2cHandle = I2C_open(CC2650_I2C0, &i2cParams);

if (i2cHandle == NULL)
{
System_printf("Error Initializing I2C\n");
}

I verified that the I2C Clock and Data lines are connected to the correct pins on the development board.

What could be probable causes of the I2C_Open() call always returning NULL?