When starting minecraft 1.7.10 and lower and I choose a multiplayer server, the game crashes.

After changing my version to 1.7.10, starting the game and going to multiplayer, I choose my server of choice and the game crashes.

What I expected to happen was...:
What should of happened is my server should of loaded and my game would continue on its merry little way.

What actually happened was...:
It crashed causing the launcher to pop up again.

Steps to Reproduce:
1. start the launcher and set version to 1.7.10
2. start the game and go to multiplayer
3. Click the server of choice and let the game crash. Lovely