Curiosity separates great journalism and lazy journalism

Journalism is a business where there's always something to do, stories to cover, deadlines to meet.

It's work that can be a grind, particularly when you wait for stories to land in your lap. But journalism can be magic when you dive into the unknown, led only by a single tip that may or may not pan out. 

Sadly, I regularly encounter journalists and other professionals who lack one key trait that separates the average from the great: curiosity. 

Tim Layden of Sports Illustrated is a great journalist. Case in point is "The Forgotten Hero," an extraordinary tale that started with a solid tip about a long-forgotten small-college athlete but grew into a much larger story about a dying man whose zest for life inspired everyone around him. 

"The Forgotten Hero" is Mike Reily, who played football at Williams College in the early 1960s. His life was cut short by Hodgkin's disease, and by all accounts the world lost a great one. 

But that's just a small piece of the story.

The intriguing entry into the larger story is that since 1963, no Williams' football player has worn Reily's No. 50. It's not that Williams officially retires jerseys -- it doesn't -- but that someone made the decision to box up the No. 50 jerseys shortly after Reily's death. Year after year, decade after decade, no Williams player wore No. 50. No one knew why the number was unavailable -- it just wasn't. 

"Nobody knew the story. It's one of those really cool undiscovered things," Layden said on a "Inside Sports Illustrated" podcast focused on how he reported "The Forgotten Hero."

"Everybody in the small Williams community knew no one wore No. 50 ... but no one knew why." 

Until a few curious people, including Layden, actually took the initiative and doggedly sought answers nearly 50 years later. 

Layden's story is a fine example of detective work, but it's more a celebration of the surprises that surface when one sits up and persists with a simple question: "Why?"

As Layden said on Twitter, "Some stories get to a writer. This one did."

I'll leave it to you to discover why "The Forgotten Hero" is such a great read. 

But ponder this before you click away:  Be curious, whether it's for work or fun. You might just  enjoy the rewards that follow.