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b'Lew Strudler credits the late George Michael and Ken Beatrice for much of the success of the Caps 1982 "Save the Washington Capitals" 30-day campaign~\\n\\n"If it wasn\\u2019t for the two of them at that particular period of time, who every night got on the air for that 30 days. They came out to The Capital Center at that point, helped us when we were doing all kinds of special events to get the city involved, especially the corporate city..."\\n\\nLew Strudler, Vice President Global Partnerships, Monumental Sports and Entertainment, and Andy Ockershausen in studio interview\\n\\nAndy Ockershausen:\\tThis is Andy Ockershausen. This is Our Town, and I\'ve had the opportunity to talk to a man I\'ve known for many, many years. A big part of WMAL incidentally, never as an employee, but as an in-house important friend: Lew Strudler, Vice President of Global Partnership for Monumental Sports. Lew, you could\'ve knocked me over with a feather when somebody told me that. That\'s your title.\\nLew Strudler:\\tThat is my title.\\nAndy Ockershausen:\\tIt\'s incredible, and I go back to you when you were working for the Wizards. You could\'ve even been a player. I don\'t remember, and that was in the early \'80s.\\nLew Strudler:\\tIn \'82, I go back. It wasn\'t even the Wizards, it was the Bullets and the Washington Capitals when I started in July of 1982 with Abe Pollin.\\nAndy Ockershausen:\\tYou know the Washington Capitals at one time was a basketball team, you knew that of course.\\nLew Strudler:\\tThat goes ways back even before that. That is correct.\\nAndy Ockershausen:\\tI mean, a very good basketball team.\\nLew Strudler:\\tThat\'s when you were a young boy, absolutely.\\nAndy Ockershausen:\\tAt Uline Arena, I remember it all, Lew, but you\'re a big part of Our Town because of your association with Abe and with the organization for many years in my position at WMAL. You were the image of talking to people with Abe. Talk to Lew and then you\'ll get to Abe, and that was very important to our growth at WMAL.\\nLew Strudler Signed on with Abe Pollin and Company to Create with 30-Day Campaign to Save the Washington Capitals\\nLew Strudler:\\tI started with Abe and he called me in the summer of \'82 and was really distressed about the financial state of the Washington Capitals, and at that point in time, wasn\'t sure he was going to keep the team in Washington. And he called me to come onboard and put together a campaign called Save the Washington Capitals.\\nAndy Ockershausen:\\tWho were you with then, Lew?\\nHow Lew Strudler Met Abe and Irene Pollin\\nLew Strudler:\\tI was working at the National Mental Health Association. I was their Director, but I was really staffing Rosalynn Carter in terms of her doing special events, fundraising events around the Country as First Lady, and Abe and Irene Pollin were on the Board of Directors of the National Mental Health Association, and that\'s how I got to meet them for a good period of time.\\nAndy Ockershausen:\\tYou know, when we had Irene here as one of our first guests on Our Town, because she represented Abe and the city so well as a big part of us, but you bring up names, Lew, that were so important, but where did you start? Did you start in Hyattsville? You didn\'t start life-\\nLew Strudler:\\tI was in Landover. I was working in DC. I grew up in New York City.\\nAndy Ockershausen:\\tThat\'s what I thought, you were a New Yorker.\\nLew Strudler:\\tI was a New Yorker and I came down here, was working at the Mental Health Association for about four years, and then got a phone call one night from Abe Pollin to come and have lunch with him on a Wednesday, and he started talking to me about the state of the Capitals and how he was either going to sell them, disband them, or give it a 30-day effort to try to make it work. And he asked me at that point in time would I come onboard totally outside the world of sports, even though I loved all sports, if I\'d come on-\\nAndy Ockershausen:\\tBut you were not in sports at the time.\\nLew Strudler:\\tNo.'