After 43 seasons in coaching, Highland Park's Randy Allen is hanging up the fedora.

As his family watched, Allen announced his retirement from coaching after 19 seasons at Highland Park on Wednesday. He did so standing next to the three state championship trophies he won at the school, along with a Highland Park football helmet and a football signed by his 2017 state championship team.

"If I'm a little wrinkled," Allen said, referring to his jacket, "it's because I hugged about 300 players just a minute ago and cried with them."

Allen has coached at Highland Park since 1999 and is coming off back-to-back Class 5A Division I state championships. He'll retire with a 376-87-6 record. The 376 victories are the fourth most in Texas high school football history. Of those wins, 226 came at Highland Park. He had a 96-1 record at home.

After playing at SMU, Allen got his start in coaching as an assistant at Bryan High School before getting his first head coaching job at 3A Ballinger. After turning that program around, he moved on to Brownwood and then his alma mater, Abilene Cooper.

In 1999, Allen moved to Highland Park. It was there, in his second year, that he picked up his trademark fedora. Allen did so in honor of Cowboys coach Tom Landry, who died that year.

The man in the hat !!!!! pic.twitter.com/RPfiuO4ecn — HP Scots Football (@HPSCOTSFB) March 22, 2018

After a good season, Allen moved back to a baseball cap. After Highland Park lost to a bad Lancaster team the next season he turned back to the fedora and has had success ever since, riding it to three state championships.

Highland Park went undefeated for the first time in its history in 2005 en route to a state championship. In 2016, Allen won his second title with Highland Park. Last year, it repeated for the first time in school history.

He's coached NFL draft picks, including No. 1 overall pick Matthew Stafford. He's coached generations of players. He even coached his own grandson this year.

But after two straight 16-game seasons, the 68-year-old Allen felt worn out. About three weeks ago, he started talking with his mentors and his wife, looking for advice.

"They said, 'This looks like the perfect time for you to retire,'" Allen said. "That's not what I wanted to hear."

Allen waited until after spring break and after the team went through its ring ceremony. But on Tuesday night he went to bed knowing that those he talked to were right: Now was the time. He woke up Wednesday, met with the superintendent and announced his retirement publicly that afternoon.

"This is a sad day for Highland Park, but at the same time, this is a celebration of the career of a man and all the athletes and coaches he's impacted the last 44 years," Highland Park athletic director Johnny Ringo said, getting emotional. "He literally changed the landscape of Scot football the last 19 years."

Allen said his most memorable moment with Highland Park was his last: when his team stopped Manvel on the 1-yard line to win the state championship.

Here is the highlight on @espn of the final play of the 5A Division I state championship game, as Highland Park stops Manvel's Jalen Preston at the 1-yard line as time expired. #txhsfb @SportsDayHS pic.twitter.com/8N2M42Iae8 — Greg Riddle (@DMNGregRiddle) December 23, 2017

Allen and his wife, Carolyn, are unsure of what's next, but they'll still be around Highland Park.

"We've never stopped, especially since we've been here," Carolyn said. "I can't say we're going to miss it because we're still going to be here."

As for the team he leaves behind, Highland Park has no timetable for finding its next head coach. The team will need to reload again, but Allen is confident the success will continue.

"They are going to fight and play like Scots always play," Allen said.

And, for the first time in 19 years, Allen will sit up in the stands and watch.