Rebel Oil co-founder dies at 95: ‘The city grew, and I just grew with it’

It was between the war and the start of the city’s population boom that Jack and Maxine Cason came to Las Vegas. As their success grew, so did the city.

“I saw an opportunity where if you worked hard, you could make something of yourself. The city grew, and I just grew with it,” Cason, then 77, said in a Review-Journal story before his induction into the Southern Nevada Sports Hall of Fame in 2004.

Cason, who died on Feb. 4 at his home at the age of 95, went on to be one of the founders of the Rebel Oil Company, which would eventually become one of the largest fuel providers in Southern Nevada.

He embodied the post-war influx of people who came to Las Vegas and who helped grow and shape the city.

“He is one of a lot of people who essentially came here, started small, made it big, and made Las Vegas bigger,” said Michael Green, an associate professor of history at UNLV.

The Casons, who were married 73 years when Jack died, met at high school in their native Ardmore, Oklahoma. Jack grew up loving sports, a love that would later manifest itself in the form of financial and participatory support in local Las Vegas athletics. He gave money, but he also coached.

In 1944 Cason joined the Navy just before the end of World War II and didn’t see any action while stationed in Hawaii. He enrolled at Oklahoma on a football scholarship, but a knee injury kept him off the field so he played junior varsity basketball for the Sooners.

After marrying in November 1949 in Redlands, California, near where Cason’s parents had moved, the Casons moved to Nevada in 1950 because Jack Cason had been working for a small fuel company. Owing to his impressive work ethic, he had been sent here to manage some of that company’s new gas stations in Las Vegas.

Building a business

But his bosses soon got cold feet about Las Vegas and miscalculated that the city would be a ghost town. Cason bought the gas stations and stayed.

With his brother Pete Cason and Carl Bailey, he would start building the company that would become the Rebel Oil Company, whose gas stations would become a familiar and ubiquitous presence in Las Vegas.

In an interview for UNLV’s Building Las Vegas History Project in 2016, Jack and Maxine Cason talked about the life they built with their family in Las Vegas. (In addition to his wife, Jack Cason is survived by his daughter Dana Cason Teepe and his brother Patrick Cason, six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.)

Audio recordings and a transcript of that interview, which is held in the Special Collections and Archives at the University Libraries at UNLV, were provided to the Review-Journal.

The Building Las Vegas History Project was undertaken, according to UNLV’s website, to document the seven-fold increase in Southern Nevada’s population between 1970 and 2010. Some information from that interview forms the basis of some of this story.

In the UNLV interview, Cason, who said he didn’t much enjoy talking about himself, elaborated on the story about how the company, which had initially been named Saveway Super Service, changed its name to Rebel:

“I am driving down the highway and I am thinking I have to change that damn name because it is a mouthful, Saveway Super Service Station. Hell, no one can remember that to buy their gas there. I thought Rebel, that’s it, because independents tried to get a catchy name, like Terrible.

“To make a long story short, I came up with this idea to get away from the Saveway Super Service Stations by calling our company Rebel. It was not because of the university. We were Rebels before the university was Rebels and I am proud of that. They probably don’t want to admit it but that is the true story. That is how Rebel started, the name.”

Evidence of the company’s success is visible on street corners across the valley.

“Rebel became a household word around here and he made a lot of contributions to athletics at every level,” said Green, who counts Las Vegas history as one of his specialties.

In 2015, Rebel sold 55 gas stations to allow the company to focus on its wholesale operations, according to its website.

Staunch backer of local sports

In 2004, Cason told the Review-Journal he couldn’t count the sheer number of local teams he has sponsored, how many kids he helped or how many summer jobs he gave to UNLV athletes.

He helped Little League baseball and Pop Warner football and also sponsored women’s sports as well as high school rodeo teams and cheerleading groups.

“I love helping kids,” Cason said. “I always felt that athletics was such a positive experience. I got involved with my kids, and that led to other kids.”

Cason’s granddaughter, the actor Gina Carano, a former mixed martial artist who starred in “Fast &Furious 6” and “Deadpool,” was the star point guard on Trinity Christian’s state championship basketball team in 2000. Cason coached the team.

“I credit my grandfather for teaching me how to be aggressive in sports, and how to be tough,” Carano said in a 2007 Review-Journal story.

“They’re the greatest bunch of girls in the world. They fight, and they just never quit,” Cason said after the title-winning game on Feb. 25, 2000.

In 1994, Cason was inducted into the UNLV Athletics Hall of Fame as a distinguished contributor.

Athletics Director Erick Harper said in an email Saturday that the department sends prayers to the Cason family.

“Jack Cason and the Cason Family have been longtime supporters of UNLV Athletics,” Harper said. “Their impact has been felt for many years as they made contributions that enhanced the student-athlete experience through scholarship.”

The longtime UNLV assistant football coach and athletics administrator Terry Cottle was on the Hall of Fame selection board when Cason was selected for induction.

“He was one of the real pioneers of UNLV athletics and specifically football,” Cottle said. “If you needed things done Jack was the guy.”

‘All about the kids’

According to Cottle, Cason was one of a group of about 100 people who donated the money needed to start the UNLV football program in 1968. Cottle, who met Cason in the 1980s when Cottle joined the football team’s coaching staff, described Cason as a “quiet giver” and a great human being who was humble and reserved.

“He was all about the kids, the players,” Cottle said. “Jack really wasn’t into having his name on buildings and stuff like that. He wanted to help kids.”

Cason was active with the Rebel Football Foundation, and he was a scholarship donor, helped with fundraisers and banquets and hired UNLV student-athletes to his company, according to Cottle.

“He leaves a lasting legacy of that generation of guys that were peers of Jack’s; they were really the movers and shakers of Las Vegas,” Cottle said.

Contact Brett Clarkson at bclarkson@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BrettClarkson_ on Twitter. Contact David Wilson at dwilson@reviewjournal.com. Follow @davidwilson_RJ on Twitter.