Why do we say "When the going gets tough, the tough get going"?

Background:

“When the going gets tough, the tough get going” means that when things get difficult, those with resolve redouble their efforts rather than give up.

The phrase is a great example of an antimetabole (an-tih-meh-TAB-ah-lee)—a saying made up of repeated words, but with the order changed. Others include:

• All for one, and one for all! —Alexandre Dumas, The Three Musketeers
• Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your counter. —John F. Kennedy
• With my mind on my money and my money on my mind. —Snoop Dogg, Gin and Juice

Unsurprisingly, this proverb arose in the world of American football as a motivational statement. It's believed that it was coined in the early 1950s, but the first quote in print appears in a story in the Corpus Cristi (Texas) Caller Times from September 1953. In an article entitled Thomas Won’t Let Hornets Scrimmage, columnist Joe Scherrer cites a speech Coach John Thomas gave to his team, the Solomon Cole High School Green Hornets, during which he used several witty phrases, including this one.

Some attribute “When the going gets tough, the tough get going” to Joseph P. Kennedy—John F. Kennedy’s father—who is said to have used it as his family’s motto, encouraging his children to be resilient. Given the statement’s frequent occurrence in the press, however, this seems a less likely source of the saying.

The adage seems to have become quite popular shortly after it first appeared in print, showing up in multiple newspapers within the next six months. It was so catchy that its use rapidly spread beyond the world of sports. Wordhistories.net mentions this January 1955 story in Portland’s daily, The Oregonian:

Femmes involved in Mothers’ March on Polio Monday night (when from 7 to 8 you’re asked to turn on porch lights, turn out pockets) have been leery all week about weather. Think it’s too good to last; vision themselves mushing through snow. But chairman, Mrs. William Y. Burton, has slogan: “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” Mrs. B. doesn’t know where she got this line; one day before Christmas she was listening to TV, writing Christmas cards, heard it and jotted it down (on Christmas card?). Says committee will put it in practice, come what may.

In the 1980s, the saying had a resurgence thanks to a Billy Ocean pop song by the same name. The chart-topping hit was the main theme song of the 1985 movie, Jewel of the Nile (which stars Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas), further cementing the phrase’s place in American culture. (Interestingly, Ocean wrote and recorded the song in just four days. It was inspired by Turner’s line, “When the going gets tough, the tough, well, I don’t know what the tough do.”)

The song’s popularity (and believe me, it was everywhere in the 1980s) led to many humorous corruptions of the proverb, with another ending substituted for “… the tough get going”—for example, “When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping,” “When the going gets tough, the tough get duct tape,” and “When the going gets tough, eat more fiber.” These and similar statements can be found on t-shirts, bumper stickers, mugs—pretty much anything you can slap a funny phrase on—in tourist shops across the country.

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