I've got to be perfectly honest: this started out as a book review of Jim Dent's work, Resurrection: The Miracle Season That Saved Notre Dame.

Dent chronicles the years leading up to the hiring of Ara Parseghian, describing the chaos that existed within the program, and then takes us through the magical 1964 season when the Irish came within 93 seconds of a national title following a 2-7 season in '63.

But when I watched the DVD, Echoes Awakened: The Year That Changed The Face of Notre Dame Football-which was based upon Dent's book-I decided to focus on that work instead. It is much more compelling, much more realistic, and a much more enjoyable telling of the incredible story of Parseghian's turnaround performance as Notre Dame's first-year head coach.

Narrated by Brent Musberger with a prologue by Lou Holtz, it is a great story and it is true. The hyperbole that Dent chose to embellish the Notre Dame football resurrection of 1964 is frustrating. You've heard of movies "based upon a true story"? That's what the book is. It reads as if it were written in 1964 when the style took on a much more beyond-belief tone. The liberties that were taken in recreating dialogue give the book a fantastic, unrealistic, amateurish feel. By the time you are done reading Resurrection, you're not sure what is fact and what is fiction, which is a shame because the real story is great…and true.

The trashing in the book of Parseghian's predecessors, Joe Kuharich and Hugh Devore, is over the top to prove the point that Notre Dame's football program was in disarray. Devore is painted as a bumbling alcoholic; Kuharich an incompetent. Perhaps both depictions are true, but there was an unnecessary cruelty to the treatment of Devore, who at least was credited in the DVD for being a faithful Notre Dame soldier (he was recruited by Knute Rockne) who helped bring in the talent that Parseghian won with in '64.

The book is overrun with so many absolutes (No one could believe it! Not one person had left the stadium! Everyone was on his feet! There wasn't a dry eye in the stadium!) and hard-to-believe imagery that it's difficult to weed through the sensationalism. Simply telling the true story, as the DVD does, would have been enough.

Dent, the author of the New York Times bestseller, The Junction Boys, should be commended for inspiring Echoes Awakened, because the story needed to be told. As in the book, former players John Huarte, Tony Carey, Nick Rassas, Ken Maglicic, Bob Meeker, and Norm Nicola, as well as Parseghian and his right-hand man, Tom Pagna, explain how the '64 season happened in the DVD.

Notre Dame, losers of 29 games in the previous five seasons, won its first nine games of '64, only to suffer the heartbreak of a 20-17 loss at USC after leading 17-0 at halftime, with the referees "conspiring" to add the tragic twist.

The old footage for someone who is old enough or barely old enough to remember Notre Dame football in the '60s is absolutely priceless. For myself, who was just four-years old at the time, to see the speed and long strides of halfback Nick Eddy, the fluid, multi-dimensional skills of Huarte, the size of wide receiver Jack Snow, and the athleticism of defensive end Alan Page and defensive backs Carey and Rassas bring these childhood heroes to life.

Parseghian's offensive genius also is documented through the old footage. He truly was ahead of his time with the use of screen passes and downfield passing mixed in with the staples of old-time football-Wishbone formations, option pitches and such.

Notre Dame did not receive one single pre-season vote from the Associated Press. But after the first game, a 31-7 victory over Wisconsin, the Irish were ranked No. 9. After four weeks, they were No. 2. By Week Six, Notre Dame was the No. 1-ranked team in the country for the first time in 10 years.

As I watched the DVD, the '64 season reminded me a lot of Holtz's arrival in '86. Holtz didn't have the first-season success that Parseghian did, but it was during that first season that the foundation for a national title in Year Three-just like Parseghian's national title in '66-was set in place.

The practice organization, the discipline, the shifting of players to take advantage of their skills, the motivation, and the installment of confidence all mirrored the Holtz years that I was privileged to cover in the early years of my journalism career.

Echoes Awakened does a tremendous job of showing Parseghian's genius, and not surprisingly, Parseghian is as sharp today at 86 as he ever was. Even his "blaming" of the officials in the Los Angeles Coliseum doesn't come off as whiny or sour grapes. It is a reasoned, honest evaluation of what he saw happen on the field, which looked like a Pac 10 officiating crew bent on assuring that John McKay's Trojans won.

Says Pagna near the end of the 60-minute DVD: "I've never known a coach that had a total grasp of the game, the psychology of the game, the implementing of the game and the follow through. I never met anybody who had it all together like he did."

I applaud Dent for the telling of the story, and in order to get a complete feel for the full story, reading the book and watching the DVD go hand in hand. For the true Notre Dame fan, I would think you'd like every detail-no matter how exaggerated-to completely understand the magic of Notre Dame's 1964 season.