The death yesterday of Ian Archer is a huge loss to the business of sports journalism. The man known as ''Dan'' to his media colleagues and to his associates in the various pursuits he covered eloquently over some 40 years was a one-off, a combination of hard-nosed professionalism, great humanity, and grand good humour.

''Dan'', so labelled by a colleague after a character in the radio series The Archers, was 59 and had fought a lengthy contest with ill health. He is survived by his wife Irene and his two

daughters.

His career carried him through the gamut of the media, in newspapers, television, and radio. He was an outstanding exponent of all three branches of the industry but the bulk of his toil was to be found in the written word, his favourite means of

communication.

His was a life of contrasts. He was born in the working-class area of Glasgow's Maryhill but in his childhood the family moved to Warwickshire where he attended a public school, Rugby. He went on to study law at Oxford University but the attraction of journalism diverted him from a career in the courts of the land where he would probably have emerged as a ''Rumpole of the Bailey'' figure.

Still, sports journalism was undoubtedly the winner in the contests of the two disciplines. A short spell learning the trade at an evening newspaper in Coventry allowed him entry to the Daily Mail in Manchester. From there, his travels returned him to his city of birth, in the Mail's Glasgow office.

Yet his definitive move was to The Herald in the early 1970s. There, he found the freedom to fully express his superb talent and it is no exaggeration to state that he revolutionised the presentation of sports writing in this country. What had previously been regarded as an adjunct to the body of the newspaper was re-invented. Archer's prose earned him a huge following and his popularity demanded that the column inches grew alongside his burgeoning abilities.

Inevitably, the awards were hard on the heels, most notably in 1975 when he received the Scottish Art Council's Munro award for outstanding achievement in journalism. This truly was a watershed. Previously, sportswriters had been consigned to their little corners, not considered worthy of such grand recognition. Ian, however, revealed a truth : good writing is as valid on the sports pages as it is in any other section of a newspaper.

Along the route of his career he journeyed to the Daily Express, the Guardian, and most recently to the Mail on Sunday where his columns remained among the most entertaining to be found on the news shelves over a weekend. Almost as an interlude, he fronted Scottish Television's Scotsport for a time and was regularly heard on sports and light entertainment programmes on radio.

So much for his ability to earn a living. But those who knew the man recognise there was a great deal more to him than a professional ability.He had a great love of literature and of music. Bob Dylan was at the top of his list of favourites when it came time to unwind. Unsurprisingly, then, he was a committed socialist, adhering to the views of the radical left, which may strike some as unusual given his public school background. Still, that was Ian, forever the non-conformist.

Perhaps this streak of obstinacy contributed to the creation of the journalist and the man that he was. The business is the poorer for his loss and many of us have lost a good friend and ally.