Hastert wasn't elected to Congress until 1986.
Indeed, he didn't enter the Illinois State Legislature until 1980.
While it's possible that this meeting happened, it could be false memory syndrome.
If the general story he tells is true, there could have been any number of men who resembled Hastert at such get-togethers.
It might be interesting to know what he thinks the man looked like, as Hastert forty years ago would have looked very different from Hastert today, and anyone who resembled today's Dennis Hastert in the 1970s would most likely be dead by now.
He's claiming specific memory as to whom he was introduced to.
For anybody to pay over 3 million to a blackmailer, there has to be something really bad, whatever it is.