Rudolf Wanderone - Personal Character

Personal Character

Wanderone was known for ostentation, self-aggrandizement, tall tales, fast-talk, and entertaining banter. He was even publicly recognized by famed boaster Muhammad Ali as better at boasting. His critical biographer, R. A. Dyer, documents that Wanderone completely fabricated a "here-by-fate" tale about a car wreck which brought the player to Little Egypt; it was a tale that Wanderone encouraged to spread and further embellished in his autobiography, to lend an air of the mystical to his public persona. Wanderone also made false claims about beating Willie Mosconi so frequently that Mosconi filed a slander lawsuit (to little avail). According to biographer Dyer, "Fats" was notorious for non-stop chatter on subjects about which he knew little, or stories about himself. At the beginning of his first TV match against Mosconi, Wanderone claimed "I've never lost for money in my life; beat everyone that ever lived." Yet, as Dyer concedes, "Pool hustlers are, by nature, liars. And by this measure, Minnesota Fats was just a very, very good pool hustler."

Wanderone was a lover of animals, and was reported to have had dozens of cats and dogs simultaneously, and to have devoted a lot of time to finding homes for strays. "I'm crazy about every living creature", he wrote in The Bank Shot. "It doesn't matter what it happens to be. I even love insects; in fact, I wouldn't swat a fly or a mosquito for a whole barrel of gold."

Remembered well for his turns of phrase and puns, Wanderone once wrote, "If you happened to drive from Mobile to Dowell with a carload of pool hustlers, you would get bit so hard and so often that you would need a malaria vaccine and a new bankroll as well", a reference not only to the area's notorious mosquitos but also the predatory nature of hustlers. Wanderone is remembered for saying on his way out a pool room door, "Boys, the only difference between me and everybody else is that everybody else drives around in a Volkswagen, and Minnesota Fats drives around in a Duesenberg." Wanderone would go anywhere to help the game, and he was a crowd-pleaser.

The flamboyant Wanderone once toured the country in a colorful Lincoln limousine – his elongated nickname painted along the side panels in translucent paint and changing colors as it moved with the reflections from the sun: "Minnesota Fats, King of Pool".

Minnesota Fats also owned a black 1980 Cadillac Fleetwood limousine. It was in the Nashville auto museum until the museum closed due to lack of profit. It was one of several Cadillac limousines owned by Minnesota Fats. The current location of the car is in Paducah KY. Wanderone was notorious for his spontaneous wit. When he was named the "uncrowned king" of pool because he never got actively involved in tournament circles (due to being too busy hustling), his reply: "You judge a king by the size of his wallet and his palace. You can leave the crown in the toilet."