When Larry Williams was named along with Kristan Knake as one of the Senior Athletes of the Year, he didn’t even know his name had been called.

Williams was not present at the Huskies’ Athletics Senior Banquet because his grandmother had died.

“One of the players had to call me to let me know,” Williams said.

The co-captain for the NIU football squad the past two seasons, Williams finished fourth in the MAC Defensive Player of the Year balloting in 2002 and was NIU’s defensive MVP.

One of Williams’ highlight games came on Sept. 14 against Wisconsin when he sacked Badger quarterback Brook Bollinger, a 2003 sixth-round draft pick by the New York Jets, three times.

Williams finished second in the MAC and 14th in Division I-A with 10 sacks in 2002. He went on to earn MAC West Defensive Player of the Week.

The one-time walk-on ended 2002 on the First-team All-MAC list for the second time in his career, the first being in 2000. He was an All-MAC honorable mention in 2001.

Recording 130 tackles last fall, Williams finished his career with 434 tackles, placing him fifth all-time at NIU.

With his last week at NIU approaching, Williams believes his biggest accomplishment will be getting his degree in management.

“When I first came here, all I was thinking about was football,” Williams said. “Now I’m gonna go through and get my degree.”

As for Williams’ counterpart, Kristan Knake ended her playing career for NIU’s women’s basketball team atop the statistical charts.

The Marengo-native began her career when she became the first Huskie ever to be named to the All-MAC Freshman team.

“Being on the All-MAC Freshman team was probably my biggest accomplishment,” Knake said.

Knake’s 29 points on Dec. 4, 2002, against UW-Milwaukee was a career-high. She scored 25 of those points in the second half.

In her junior year, Knake averaged 12 points per game and led NIU with 80 assists and 67 steals. Her numbers were good enough to earn All-MAC honorable mention.

Knake finished as one of only four Huskies ever to record over 1,000 points, 300 assists, 200 steals and 100 three-pointers.

“Going to a D-I school, your expectations may be high,” Knake said. “My expectations were to be a role player and to be able to play as much as I could.”