How SSH got port number 22

A more interesting story is why are the older services using mainly odd port numbers (ie. 21 = FTP, 23 = telnet, why was port 22 free at that time?). It turns out because the protocol which preceded the invention of TCP, called NCP, used even-odd pairs of port numbers, with even for "outgoing" data and odd for "incoming". So the well-known port numbers for incoming services were all odd. Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_Control_Program http://www.pcvr.nl/tcpip/introduc.htm

So the crux of the story is “I had to email an internet icon and she mailed me back right away having done what I asked”. I can sympathize. When I worked at Sendmail I was tasked with running DNS for the company, which included Sendmail.org. The first thing I had to do was find a secondary DNS. Our founder said to “email his friend Paul”. It turned out his friend was Paul Vixie, the inventor of BIND, who responded…

While the copies of the original emails are mildly interesting, it looks like the answer is just "Because I asked for port 22 and got it".