Conceivably, Bucceroni could be wrong about the date, but doesn't that make the idea of a specific memory a little shakier? Why is this only surfacing now?
Hastert is dead to me, but this story doesn't quite pass the smell test, at least for me.
People who want to run for Congress in the future often start trying to establish contacts in DC beforehand. And, he ran for the Illinois House in 1980 and lost, then in 1981, he won a seat vacated by a terminally ill legislator.
So politics was obviously on his mind in the late '70s. At present, not a lot has been established or refuted concerning this very new story, but with what is already known, it's pretty knee-jerk to dismiss anything out-of-hand until much more investigation has taken place.