Criminal records showing "Mad Men" star Jon Hamm participated in a violent college hazing have resurfaced almost 25 years after incident occurred, according to The Associated Press.
A Sigma Nu pledge at the University of Texas filed a lawsuit in 1991 saying he had been severely beaten, dragged by a hammer and had his pants set on fire during the incident in 1990. The pledge, Mark Allen Sanders, also said Hamm participated "till the very end."
Sanders claimed that Hamm became "mad, I mean really mad" when the 20-year-old pledge failed to memorize and recite a number of things about Hamm and his fellow fraternity brothers. The now 44-year-old actor then set Sanders' jeans on fire, shoved his face in the dirt and struck him with a paddle, according to the suit.
"He rears back and hits me left-handed, and he hit me right over my right kidney. I mean square over it," Sanders said in the lawsuit, according to the AP. "Good solid hit and that, that stood me right up."
Hamm was charged with hazing but avoided conviction by successfully completing probation. A separate charge of assault was dismissed.
Four other fraternity members were charged and pleaded no contest to misdemeanor hazing charges, according to the AP. The university also shuttered the Sigma Nu chapter.
The Golden Globe-winner moved back home to Missouri the same semester as the incident. He later said the move was due to his father's death. Hamm would not make his acting debut until six years later in a 1997 episode of "Ally McBeal."
Star magazine first made the connection between Hamm and the case on April 8.
"Mad Men" premiered its final season last week. The show airs on Sundays at 10 p.m. on AMC.
