the air temperature got up to 75, and I did not make a starter. I just pitched the yeast into the wort.
I'm guessing that if the air temp was 75, your beer was chugging along upwards of 80, which could produce some fusel alcohols, which mean nasty hangovers. My fermentation room, like yours is at about 75 at the moment, and here's what I do to cool down the beer while the magic happens:
1: I bought a keg bucket (under 10 bucks), set the fermenter in it, and filled it up about 18" with water. Wrap a towel around the fermenter so it wicks water up to to the top (I dunk the towel in the water to give it a head start). Point a fan at the fermenter in the bucket to accelerate evaporation- if your ambient humidity is below 50% or so, that will cool the beer down 5-10 degrees. This is called a swamp cooler, and it works.
2: I just fermented a fairly big beer (higher gravity = more heat), so I took a couple of the cheapo tupperware containers that lunchmeat comes in these days, filled them with water and froze them. I rotate them between the freezer and the keg bucket to knock a few more degrees off the temperature.
Between those two measures, I fermented a 1.074 OG beer and kept it at 68F the whole time. Not a lot of trouble or money (I'm a Ph.D. student, so I can afford neither at the moment). Like I said before, I get hungover really easily, but my homebrews don't do it to me. I hope the advice you get on this forum gets you to the same place.