Though most of us look to March for confirmation that spring is arriving, a select few use it as a reminder to get drunker than ever before. At the University of Amherst, the yearly "Blarney Blowout" was interrupted when law enforcement intervened, arresting 73 drunks, with 4 officers injured in the process.

The "Blowout" is held the Saturday before Spring Break begins, and Amherst's police captain Jennifer Gundersen said it was "perhaps one of the worst scenes we have ever had with drunkenness and unruliness."

Police from the city and university and state troopers in riot gear converged on a crowd of about 4,000 people at an apartment complex shortly after noon. Authorities said people on the property were destroying things, and as officers began to disperse the crowd, they were pelted with glass bottles, beer cans and snowballs.

The University of Massachusetts flagship campus is located under two hours outside of Boston proper, where the yearly St. Patrick's Day parade will be held this coming Sunday. The disorder at Amherst continued into the early morning.

After quieting the disturbance at the apartment complex, several thousand people assembled near a frat house. That gathering became dangerous and out of control, officials said, and when officers tried to clear the crowd, they again were attacked with bottles, rocks, cans and snowballs.

Prior to the event, students were surprised to hear that the massive party was not school sanctioned.

UMass showing us they mean business about Blarney Blowout... #thanksumass pic.twitter.com/78Xr2r5JJZ — ZOOMass Amherst (@zoomassa) March 3, 2014

Young scholar and Twitter user @P_Renda831 might have said it best in the days leading up to the festivities.

Blarney blowout could rank as one of the most overrated events ever.. Buncha people standing in the cold just yelling and throwing things — Peter Renda (@P_Renda831) March 2, 2014

Prescient.

[Photo via HerCampus.com]