Bill Bryson, in The Mother Tongue mentions in passing the phrase "root hog or die", which I questioned in today's wwftd entry. so far I've had two(2) responses that don't mesh all that well:

1. a link to a song with this title, which uses the phrase as a pick-up line for the chorus - punctuated Root, hog, or die. http://www.musicanet.org/robokopp/usa/roothog.htm

2. and this:
I played football when I was in college, and we had a drill called Dig Dig Little Pig - Root Hog or Die
It had two linemen facing each other, a ball carrier and a would-be tackler. The coach took great joy in squealing out that name when it was time for the drill. The players didn't like it much because everyone got beat to death.

in the first verse of the song(1) we find: Big pig or little pig Root, hog, or die
which closely tracks the football drill: Dig Dig Little Pig - Root Hog or Die.

is anyone out there familiar with any of this?