Today we have three good lookin' glasses from John Ascuaga's Nugget!! Nice to have a dated example from the 1985 Reno Rodeo.
Reno Gazette, June 28th, 2001; John Ascuaga, the man who built John Ascuaga’s Nugget into one of the premiere hotel-casinos in Reno-Sparks, has died. He was 96 years old. Ascuaga served in the U.S. Army in his youth, receiving an honorable discharge, according to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Business Hall of Fame. He then went to college at the University of Idaho and Washington State University, where he got degrees in accounting and hotel and restaurant management, respectively. While attending college, he served as a bellman at an Idaho lodge, kicking off a career in the resort industry. It wasn’t until Ascuaga moved to Sparks, however, that he started what would prove to be a meteoric rise in Northern Nevada gaming. At the time, Ascuaga would meet Idaho native and gaming pioneer Dick Graves, who owned Dick Graves’ Nugget in Sparks. Back then, the Nugget was just a coffee shop that had a few slot machines and a signature burger, the “Awful Awful.” Ascuaga would eventually take over the Nugget after Graves retired in 1960. He would turn the Nugget into a major hotel-casino in the coming decades along with his wife Rose Louis, who Ascuaga met at the Nugget’s steakhouse. Rose Louise died on Nov. 28 after a lengthy illness, according to the family.
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