Before becoming the beloved actor we know today, Jon Hamm had a darker side.
Star Magazine has obtained details of an incident from over 30 years ago when Hamm, then a sophomore in college and a member of a fraternity, was involved in a hazing incident that went horribly wrong.
Fraternities are often associated with hazing and mistreatment of their members, and Hamm’s fraternity was no exception.
Back in November 1990, Hamm was arrested for assaulting a pledge named Mark Allen Sanders, causing him to suffer a fractured spine and nearly lose a kidney.
Sanders, a junior at the University of Texas at Austin, was pledging to Sigma Nu, where Hamm was a member.
According to the DailyMail, Sanders was an honors student with a promising future.
On the fateful night of November 10, 1990, Sanders was summoned to the fraternity house.
Little did he know, he would endure two hours of torment.
Hamm warned him, “It’s going to be a long night.”
The hazing ritual involved memorizing facts from a six-page list known as the “bulls–t list.”
When it was Sanders’ turn to answer questions, he stumbled on Hamm’s nicknames for him, including “MC Hammer” and “Young Bobby.”
This angered Hamm, who became furious.
As punishment, Hamm and other fraternity members beat Sanders with a paddle, causing excruciating pain.
Sanders recalled, “I’m hurting bad, I mean being hit right where the kidney is, it’s killing me.”
But the abuse didn’t stop there.
They lifted Sanders by his underwear and swung him back and forth.
Sanders, in immense pain, gritted his teeth and squinted his eyes, feeling the agony intensify.
To make matters worse, they took him to a small compartment known as “the pit” and forced him to do push-ups while Hamm shoved his face into the ground.
Someone even stood on his back, adding to his suffering.
Then, Hamm lit Sanders’ pants on fire, denying him the chance to pat out the flames and instead making him blow them out.
The final act of cruelty occurred in the “party room.”
Hamm took a hammer and hooked its claw onto Sanders’ testicles, parading him around the room for what felt like an eternity.
After enduring such horrific treatment, Sanders sought refuge in a friend’s room and showed his injuries to fellow students.
He later revealed nerve damage to his ribs, a spinal fracture, and kidney spasms.
Sanders’ mother reported the incident to the college authorities, leading to a police investigation.
In 1993, Hamm was identified as the ringleader and arrested.
However, the hazing charge did not stick, and Hamm was only sentenced to probation.
He left college without obtaining a degree, while three other fraternity members received jail sentences that were later commuted to community service.
Sanders filed a lawsuit against the fraternity, but the case was eventually dismissed, suggesting a settlement was reached out of court.
Consequently, the fraternity chapter was disbanded.
In 2018, when asked about the incident in an interview with Esquire, Hamm showed little remorse and denied the accuracy of the court documents.
He described it as a “bummer” of a thing that happened and emphasized that he was essentially acquitted.
Hamm viewed it as a strange experience from his college years, a time when he was trying to figure things out.
While Hamm brushes off the incident as a “weirdness,” it had a lasting impact on the victim.
Sanders left UT Austin and continued his studies at Texas Christian University, where he earned degrees in medicine and law.
Today, he resides in Fort Worth with his wife and two children, practicing as a doctor and attorney specializing in medical malpractice and personal injury.
In conclusion, Hamm’s college years were marred by a disturbing hazing incident that left a fraternity pledge severely injured and traumatized.
The repercussions of this event continue to shape the lives of those involved, with Sanders finding success despite the challenges he faced.
It serves as a reminder of the dangers of hazing and the importance of addressing such practices in fraternity culture.
