photo by: Cynthia Hernandez/Journal-World

The Haskell Indian Nations University women's basketball team celebrates their victory over Northern New Mexico in the Continental Athletic Conference championship on Sunday, March 2, 2025, at Coffin Sports Complex in Lawrence, Kansas.

Lawrence’s two women’s college basketball programs will share the same floor in an official game for the first time in more than 50 years.

The Kansas women’s basketball team is hosting Haskell Indian Nations University at Allen Fieldhouse on Dec. 17.

The matchup was first announced by Haskell in an Instagram post in April, which said the game would take place at 6:30 p.m., and officially confirmed by KU on Wednesday. Haskell plays at the NAIA level, but the game will count as a regular-season contest for the Jayhawks.

The two teams have not played since Jan. 29, 1974, a 62-26 victory for KU in the Jayhawks’ first season under legendary head coach Marian Washington. KU holds a 4-1 edge in the all-time series with one 38-35 loss on Feb. 5, 1972. (The KU men’s team, for the record, hasn’t played against Haskell since much further in the past; its last matchup with the Fighting Indians was on Jan. 12, 1914.)

The Haskell women’s basketball program attracted national attention in the spring when its head coach Adam Strom continued to coach the team even after he was one of nearly 40 federal employees fired from Haskell on Feb. 14.

In March, Strom went on to lead the Fighting Indians to a Continental Athletic Conference tournament title and a berth in the national tournament. He was also reinstated as a Haskell employee and Haskell lists him currently as both its women’s basketball coach and an assistant athletic director.

KU coach Brandon Schneider expressed his admiration for Strom in a postgame press conference after the Jayhawks’ run at the Big 12 tournament ended on March 5, calling him “a credit to our profession.”

“I would say that Adam has been a tremendous example for our profession, for the Lawrence community, but maybe most importantly for his young women in an era and a culture where people move on pretty easily these days from commitments, but Adam has stuck with his players,” Schneider said. “He has shown just incredible integrity and character in continuing to support them while not being paid.”

KU is coming off an injury-ridden 16-14 (6-12 Big 12) 2024-25 campaign but has reinvigorated its roster with the addition of a top-10 freshman class nationally, arguably the best class in program history, and returns last season’s standouts like guard S’Mya Nichols and wing Elle Evans.