Last night, Dallas ABC affiliate WFAA gave the last ten minutes of its 10:00 p.m.newscast to saying goodbye to sports reporter, anchor and executive sports producer George Riba.
Riba is retiring after 37 years with the station. Sports anchor Dale Hansen put together a video tribute.
“He arrived in Dallas in the middle of the golden age for local TV news,” said Hansen “A one-man-band: reporter, photographer and editor — long before the term ‘multimedia journalist’ existed.”
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram put the tribute on its site.
Riba was working at KXAS/Channel 5 when Channel 8 lured him away in 1977, as revealed in the clip [watch below]. The tribute was followed by an in-studio farewell in which former Texas Rangers player-manager Toby Harrah gave Riba a parting gift: a framed, signed Rangers jersey with “Riba” and the number 37 on the back.