Santiago, Chile, was originally named the host of the tenth Pan American Games, but it withdrew in 1983 due to political and financial problems.

Designed by Michael Hayes of the JMH Corporation in Indianapolis, the seven colors represented the wildlife and flags of western hemisphere countries.

[3] Flag bearers in the Parade of Nations included the games' oldest athlete, 70-year-old yachtsman Durward Knowles of the Bahamas, basketball star José Ortiz of Puerto Rico, and baseball pitcher Jim Abbott of the United States.

In keeping with Pan American Games tradition, a flame was lit at Cerro de la Estrella in Mexico City.

The flame was flown to Chicago on July 16, and was carried along an 1,100-mile torch relay that encircled the state of Indiana before arriving in Indianapolis on August 7.

[8] The final leg of the torch relay had the flame passed from Indianapolis-born basketball player Oscar Robertson to gymnast Kristie Phillips to sprinter Wilma Rudolph, also from Indianapolis, who lit the cauldron.

[3] During the opening ceremony, a plane chartered by anti-Castro Cuban-American activists flew a banner urging Cuban athletes to defect.

At a baseball game in Bush Stadium between Cuba and the Netherlands Antilles the day after the opening ceremony, Cuban-American protestors taunted the Cuban players, threw flyers at them, and mocked them with offers of cash.

[2] After these incidents Manuel Gonzalez Guerra, who was Cuba's top sports official, publicly demanded that organizers keep the anti-Castro protestors away from the Cuban athletes.

Mark Miles, the president of the organizing committee, made a phone call to the Ronald Reagan administration in the White House, who subsequently pressed Cuban-American activists groups to dial down the pressure by the final week.

The exhibition presented 125 works by artists from a variety of nations, including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Puerto Rico, the United States, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

[10] The closing ceremony was initially planned to take place at the American Legion Mall, a popular site for open air events on the Indiana World War Memorial Plaza in downtown Indianapolis.

[12] The headline act was Cuban-American Gloria Estefan and her band, Miami Sound Machine,[4] which was selected, according to the organizing committee, because her album Let It Loose had just achieved platinum sales.

[2][16] Hosting the games also attracted many sports organizations to consider Indianapolis as a site for their headquarters, most notably the National Collegiate Athletic Association.