Dapper and dynamic Carlos “Honeyboy”Palanca III joined the Philippine Basketball Association in 1979.

Palanca became a member of the PBA Board of Governors after the league took in the La Tondeña Incorporada franchise and accepted an expansion team, Gilbey’s Gin, for the first time ever.

That year, Gilbey’s Gin wound up eighth among the nine teams with a 13-31 win-loss record in 44 games. The following year, the Gins improved to 16-23 and ranked fourth in the All-Filipino Conference.

In 1981, the club was renamed St. George Whiskey but the Gins further slipped to an 8-22 ledger. The next campaign, they reverted to Gilbey’s Gin and finished with a winning record for the first time at 28-19 and reached the finals in the Open Conference against eventual winner Toyota.

In 1983, a changing of the guards led to a 31-year-old Palanca assuming the presidency of the league under new commissioner Mariano Yenko.

With the demise of Toyota, Palance secured the services of Robert Jaworski and Francis Arnaiz for the Gilbey’s Gin Tonics in 1984.

By 1986, Palanca had taken over the position of PBA chair and renamed his team to Ginebra San Miguel. The switch worked wonders as the crowd favorite Ginebras won a title (Open Conference) for the first time in franchise history under playing coach Jaworski.

Palanca slowly faded out of the PBA after San Miguel Corporation bought a 70-percent share in La Tondeña Incorporada in June 1988.

While he stayed on as the franchise’s Board representative for several more years after the sale, Palanca no longer took an active role in league matters.

Before long, Palanca migrated to the United States and lived there with his wife, beauty queen Dang Cecilio, and their kids.

With the latest addition of Caidic, Lim, Calma, Brown, Parks, Bernardino and Palanca, there are now 29 individual members in the PBA Hall of Fame.

In 2005, the first batch of honorees was composed of players Williams “Bogs” Adornado, Fortunato “Atoy” Co Jr., Philip Cezar, Jaworski, Ramon Fernandez and Arnaiz, coach Baby Dalupan, team owners Danny Floro (Crispa) and Emerson Coseteng (Mariwasa), former PBA commissioners Prieto and Salud, and sports broadcaster Joe Cantada.

In 2007, the Hall of Fame inductees were players Danny Florencio, Manny Paner and Alberto “Abet” Guidaben, longtime import Norman Black, coaches Dante Silverio and Ron Jacobs, former PBA president Domingo Itchon, San Miguel Corporation chair Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco Jr., sportswriter Antonio Siddayao, and broadcaster Jose “Pinggoy” Pengson.