MAXX WOLFSON/Arizona Daily Wildcat Actor/comedian Tom Arnold interviews Lute Olson on Friday during the filming of a segment for the "Best Damn Sports Show Period" at Gentle Ben's Brewing Co. Arnold, a former student at Iowa during Olson's tenure as head coach, was the Master of Ceremonies at Friday's "Midnight Madness" basketball preview.

Former Hawkeye and current actor/sports anchor Tom Arnold pays visit to the Old Pueblo to reunite with ex-Iowa coach Lute Olson and get an early look at his preseason No. 1 UA basketball team

Somewhere between "True Lies" and the "Best Damn Sports Show Period," comedian Tom Arnold has gained the fanfare of your typical Hollywood celebrity.

But it hasn't been easy.

The man who was once known as Mr. Roseanne Barr received a standing ovation from a near-capacity crowd in McKale Center on Friday night as the Master of Ceremonies at "Midnight Madness." He also drew nearly 300 people for a taping of his current show at Gentle Ben's Brewing Co.

"The people here have been great and it's an awesome basketball program," Arnold said. "I was shocked to see all the people here on a Friday night at midnight. It's always good to come to Tucson. Usually I come here to visit friends in rehab, so it's a better reason to come down."

The former Iowa student did his best last weekend to fit in at the school that took away his school's basketball coach, Lute Olson, years ago.

Arnold, 43, who is called the "voice of the fan" on the Fox Sports Net's "Best Damn Sports Show Period," has come a long way since his keg-drinking party-animal days at the University of Iowa.

"After I heard that Lute Olson was leaving Iowa to coach at Arizona, I changed my life plans and decided to move to Hollywood and marry a very large woman," said Arnold about his former wife, Roseanne Barr.

Before life in Hollywood, Arnold, a native of Ottumwa, Iowa, was trying to make a name for himself as a comedian at the University of Iowa.

He still travels with his two best friends, Kevin Moreland and Mike Sporer, who saw Arnold perform his first-ever standup act in the student union in Iowa.

Moreland and Sporer have also seen Arnold at his worst.

"In Iowa, my roommates hated me for obvious reasons and we were out at the bars doing very bad things on Christmas," he said. "So, I come home and all my roommates were celebrating Christmas without me. I was a little messed up and upset with them and I ran in there and grabbed the Christmas tree in the middle of their gift-giving and pulled it out of there and threw it out in the middle of the street.

"Anyway, they freaked out and I took off. I thought the next day they would forgive me. However, one of my roommates pulverized me, and it was a girl. But the reason I don't feel bad about that now is that she moved to San Francisco and became a man. So, I really didn't get beat up by a girl."

After stories like that, it makes sense that Arnold does not miss college.

"I don't miss being in college, but it's fun to think about when I was that young because I was so crazy," he said. "What I say to them is enjoy it now because you have to work the rest of your life.

"What I do now at Fox is sort of like being in college because you can goof around and you get paid for it."

And that is exactly what Arnold does on the show. When Fox was casting for the "Best Damn Sports Show Period" they were looking for a comedian who knew sports and they finally found their man in Arnold.

"We didn't think it was going to go on for six weeks, but I thought maybe 13 weeks," he said. "It needs to keep evolving and getting better and I think it is but we have a ways to go. There is certainly not a show just like it."

The show, hosted by Chris Rose and featuring athletes like Michael Irvin, John Kruk and John Salley, has now been on for 16 months. One thing Arnold likes is that working for the show still gives him time to act.

He will appear opposite Jet Li and DMX in the upcoming movie "Cradle 2 the Grave" and will appear in a few episodes of "The Agency." He also wrote an autobiography, "How I Lost Five Pounds in Six Years," which will be released next month.

"I'm just doing a little of this and a little of that," he said.