By Brittany Nunn January 26, 2015

George Riba reflects on his 37-year career with Channel 8

George Riba: Photo by James Coreas.

Old Lake Highlands neighbor George Riba has been a familiar face on Channel 8, where he has worked as a sports anchor, executive sports producer and sports director since 1977. He remembers when WFAA made the switch from film to digital. He remembers when major sports teams like the Texas Rangers, the Dallas Mavericks and the Dallas Stars first signed on in this city. But now, after 37 years, the final countdown on Riba’s colorful career has begun.

Riba is retiring this month, and his reason for doing so is simple: “I can’t do it forever,” he says with a shrug. He had a good run and has produced or co-produced more than 10,000 stories during his career. From here on out, Riba has one objective for how he’ll spend his time: “If it’s not fun, I’m not doing it,” he insists.

Riba’s career began while he was still attending the University of Texas at Arlington. He originally started in radio before he found out TV pays better. He worked a couple of different TV stints while still in school, and he was hired on at Channel 8 after he graduated.

For the first few years he did half radio and half TV, and he loved it. “I still think radio is very cool,” he says. He never planned to cover sports full time, but it fit him well.

In 37 years, Riba says, it’s hard to pick a favorite story; there are too many. But Riba says he usually enjoyed stories that involved trips, and he has especially fond memories of a trip to Tokyo to cover SMU playing Houston in the 1983 Mirage Bowl. Spring training and football training camp stories also hold a special place in his heart.

Since the late ’70s, if Riba wasn’t in the newsroom, you could find him running or cycling at White Rock Lake — often with his wife, Maggie, who works as a personal trainer. He has run 29 marathons and completed the Dallas Marathon 21 times. “I try to do one every year,” he says. “That’s one of the reasons why I moved over here to the lake area.”

He says he plans to keep running after retirement and maybe work or volunteer somewhere part time, or possibly learn an instrument or two — or who knows, maybe none of that. The point is: He can do whatever he wants.