Lobster hats for Team Maine, Crab hats for Team Maryland, Statue of Liberty Crowns for Team Liberty of metropolitan New York and New Jersey -- there were even a few grass skirts among the lei-bedecked members of Team Hawaii and Indian headdresses for Team Oklahoma.

The National Kidney Foundation 2008 U.S. Transplant Games that began here yesterday are an Olympic-style athletic competition designed to show the success of transplantation and the need for donor organs.

But they also are a chance for the 1,325 participating transplant-recipient athletes, donor families and living donors to celebrate life itself, and they did so raucously during a colorful parade of state and regional teams at the start of the Opening Ceremonies at David L. Lawrence Convention Center.

"Here we go Pittsbugh, here we go," the more than 5,000 participants chanted before they began to march into the convention center.

"This is a celebration of families and a celebration of life," said Master of Ceremonies Catherine Herridge, a Fox News correspondant who donated a portion of her liver to her toddler son.

"This week in Pittsburgh, all of us are family...

"Are you ready?"

"Yeaaaaah," the marchers responded.

"Are you ready?"

"Yeaaaah!"

"Are you ready?"

"Yeaaaah!"

As the surgeon who once made Pittsburgh the organ transplant center of the world, Dr. Thomas Starzl was the logical choice to help light the flame last night during opening ceremonies .

The competition is an event that Dr. Starzl, now 82, never dreamed of when he was pioneering organ transplants back in the early 1960s.

"I don't think we conceived quite that level of recovery at that time, in part because we had no idea why the operations were even possible," said Dr. Starzl, who transplanted his first kidney in 1962 and his first liver in 1963.

"We didn't know what was allowing the mechanisms of engraftment," he said. "If you don't understand what you're accomplishing, you don't have a very clear picture of what the future holds.

"Once the mechanisms of engraftment were elucidated, then you could much more clearly see what the future held and you could actually understand the possibility of achieving a complete cure. For one thing, you could understand how some of these patients could completely get off immunosuppressant drugs and develop a complete tolerance to transplants."

And not just get off drugs, but live lives normal enough to allow them to play sports -- as more than 1,300 transplant recipients will show during their competition in 12 sports.

Among them are an estimated 200 competitors from around the nation who had transplants by Dr. Starzl or at the University of Pittsburgh's Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute. They will participate in a reception and reunion with the doctor on Tuesday evening.

The group includes Dale Murdock, 58, of Driggs, Idaho, who is one of the longest-living organ transplant patients -- he received an uncle's kidney 44 years ago.

"It will be lovely to see him," Dr. Starzl said a couple days before the opening ceremony. "I'm very fond of him. I talk to him from time to time. He's one of the grand stories."

When hearing about Dr. Starzl's comments, Mr. Murdock quipped, "I'm so old, he won't recognize me."

Dr. Starzl was looking forward to participating in a lot of activities during the games, of which the university and UPMC are official host, a primary sponsor and provider of sports medical services. He's attended other Transplant Games but never had as much time as he does since he's moved to semi-retired status. (He's still trying to get his archives transferred to Pitt while handling correspondence from his office at the institute.)

Along with lighting the flame and attending the reunion, Dr. Starzl is throwing out a ceremonial first ball to start the basketball competition at the convention center tonight and helping present medals at the track and field competition at Carnegie Mellon tomorrow.

"It's injected a shot of vitality in me," Dr. Starzl said. "This is really a big deal."

The athletes also will compete by age groups and gender in golf, swimming, tennis, bowling, volleyball, badminton, racquetball, cycling and table tennis. The 12th sport was a 5K walk/run on the North Shore this morning that was open to donor families, living donors and the public.

Besides CMU and the convention center, the 14 venues include North Park and Pittsburgh National golf courses. The closing ceremonies are at 8 p.m. Tuesday in Pitt's Petersen Events Center.

Public day passes can be bought at the Games Store in the convention center for $15.

Several celebrities, either transplant recipients or donors, are participating in official capacities, including actors Larry Hagman (liver recipient) and Ken Howard (kidney recipient) and Chris Klug, an Olympic bronze medalist in snowboarding (liver recipient).