 Born in Pryor, Oklahoma, Fusselman graduated from Payson-Seymour High School in Illinois and attended Western Illinois University.His decade-long professional career, which began in the Cardinal farm system in 1942, was interrupted by three years of service in the United States Army during World War II.Fusselman's postwar baseball career was spent bouncing between upper-level Redbird affiliates until, at age 31, he made the Cardinal roster in 1952 as a rookie.