When the Chargers in 1981 dealt away Fred Dean, they were, in effect, trading him into history. Today they are making him an honored part of their own history.

Dean is being received into the San Diego club's Hall of Fame in ceremonies at the Hall of Champions in Balboa Park. Among those to be there to salute Dean are Gary Johnson and Louie Kelcher, his associates on the Chargers' defensive line of the 1970s and early 1980s.

File photo / Union-Tribune Fred Dean wreaked havoc on quarterbacks with his ability to beat offensive tackles. His most productive seasons were with the 49ers.

Johnson, Kelcher and Dean all concluded their careers on the San Francisco 49ers, the team to which Dean was assigned in 1981 (for a second-round draft selection and a trade of first-round choices). As accomplished as Dean had been with the Chargers, he would become even more effective with the Niners because of how the late Bill Walsh utilized him.

Dean was not the biggest of defensive ends. As a means of preventing Dean from wearing down, Walsh chose to have him on the field only on passing downs. He became possibly the first of the NFL's situational pass rushers.

“He changed the whole game of pro football,” former Green Bay Packers General Manager Ron Wolf once said.

As quick as he was, Dean would be strikingly effective in his situational assignments. Though he played in only 11 games for the 49ers in 1981, he was named the NFC Defensive Player of the Year.

“What he (Walsh) did for me was important in my life,” Dean said in February after he was voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. “He made me see another side of my life.”

Dean, 56, is the 34th person to be tapped for the Chargers' hall. At Louisiana Tech, the native of Arcadia, La., had been a linebacker, but after drafting him in the second round in 1975, the Chargers immediately moved him to defensive end. He quickly became a force, as a rookie recording seven sacks and 93 tackles, 63 of them solo. Through his time with the Chargers, he had a sack total near 100. The number is unofficial since sacks were not an official statistic until 1982.

In the season when the Chargers surrendered him, Dean played on division winners in both San Diego and San Francisco. For the 49ers in 1983, he had 17.5 sacks, including a then-NFL record six in a game against the New Orleans Saints. He played on six division winners, on teams that were parties to Super Bowls XVI and XIX, and was selected for four Pro Bowls.

Dean is the seventh individual associated with the Chargers who has been elected to the Canton hall, joining Lance Alworth, Dan Fouts, Sid Gillman, Charlie Joiner, Ron Mix and Kellen Winslow.

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Jerry Magee: (619) 293-1830; jerry.magee@uniontrib.com