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Gregory Bull/Associated Press

Lance Alworth, Dan Fouts, Junior Seau, LaDainian Tomlinson

If the departing Chargers want to leave the city of San Diego a lasting memory of their 56 years there, they might want to commission Mount Chargemore, but the selection process won't be easy.

That's because the team didn't have one particular heyday in San Diego. Instead, the Bolts were competitive at four separate junctures. I'm giving you one legend from each.

1960-1965: They won an AFL championship, went to four more and won five division titles during this span, and Alworth was the standout in San Diego for most of it. He was an All-Star with at least 50 catches and 1,000 yards in seven consecutive seasons between 1963 and 1970, and in 1994 he was named to the league's 75th Anniversary All-Time Team.

1978-1981: They lost just 18 games in this four-season span, making the playoffs in all four of them and reaching the AFC Championship Game twice. Fouts—a Hall of Fame quarterback—set new single-season passing yardage records in each of the latter three campaigns. He made six Pro Bowls over the course of a 15-year career in San Diego, and he remains one of the most accomplished passers in NFL history.

1992-1995: They won the division in '92 and did so again en route to the Super Bowl in '94, and a young Seau was the headliner for that entire stretch, plus another seven years. Widely considered one of the greatest linebackers in NFL history, he's in Canton with 12 Pro Bowls and six first-team All-Pro nods on his record.

2004-2009: They won five division titles and made a couple of strong playoff runs during this six-year stretch. While I wouldn't fault you for picking quarterback Philip Rivers to represent those teams, Tomlinson was undoubtedly the Chargers' most dominant player in the 2000s.

In fact, the three-time All-Pro was the most dominant offensive player in football in several of those seasons. Between '02 and '07, he had 12,422 yards from scrimmage. Nobody else in football had more than 10,300. He's a lock.